I
wrote about fresh garden tomatoes as being something I appreciate about being
an American but I just love the entire aspect of gardening. I love getting out
there, working the soil, planting flowers and vegetables, harvesting, watching
the birds and bees enjoy what I’ve planted…I just love it all.
I
can spend five to six hours of a summer day just trimming hedges, weeding
vegetable patches, redoing flower beds, tinkering in the shed and dreaming
about what I’m going to do next. I love to watch viny vegetables from day to
day. Squash and pumpkins will go from tiny little sprouts to green mounds in a
fortnight. Then they start sprouting out tentacles, climbing into the corn, up
the fence and into the hedges. Cucumbers are the same on a smaller scale. I
will place wire near them so that they can climb up and be kept to a smaller
area so I have room to grow other exciting things.
The
taste of fresh corn on the cob is something I love. There is nothing as sweet
as corn picked just a few moments before you cook it. Candy cannot compare. In
the autumn I cut the stalks down and put them into shocks to act as sentinels
to our doors, blending with the colors of the golden leaves falling from the
maples. If I’ve grown enough pumpkins, I’ll carve jack-o-lanterns and set them
at the base of the shocks.
And
roses are always beautiful. Since most of mine are hybrids they keep me busy
with pruning, winterizing, drying, and pest control. I love their beauty, their
photogenic quality and their intoxicating scent. And there are always herbs.
Fresh basil to mix in a salad with tomatoes. Sage blooming and attracting honey
bees. Lavender, chives, tarragon, and mint all working together or apart in
some concoction to sooth, make meats savory or refresh in a lemonade. And
pansies and petunias and sunflowers and marigolds, iris, tulips, lilies—oh I
could go on forever. Gardening is one of the best preoccupations of this
American.
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