Ambitious gardener in March

A SECOND OPINION

— I am a great and ambitious gardener in March. Warm winds out of the south and mild sunny days get me in the mood to peruse seed catalogues and visit garden centers, imagining all the delicacies I could grow and all the lessons about science and hard work I could impart to my children.

Yes, in March, April and even May, I am a very ambitious gardener. By the end of May, my fancy begins to wear down. Even so, I am still encouraged by the wonderful progress I am making and the lovely green peas that never seem to make it to the kitchen because we eat them all right off the vine.

In early June when thekids are still enjoying the novelty of being out of school, we spend several mornings a week joyfully working outside. We enjoy the fruits of our labor and eat mounds of fried squash with onions, cucumbers, lettuce and broccoli.

But then the heat sets in, followed by vacations and house sitting for friends and swimming and horse shows and all kinds of other summer activities, and the garden is forgotten, left to bake to death in the July heat.

The weeds, however, are impervious to the heat and lack of water and grow up lush and vigorous.

Several years ago my weeds grew up over the tops of my young okra, which was doing quite well in spiteof the neglect, and a family member who shall remain nameless hacked them all down together with the weed eater!

Once, I commented on a friend’s bountiful and healthy looking tomatoes in August, noting that mine had “mysteriously” withered and died in July.

“Well, why didn’t you water them?” she laughingly replied.

What? How could she have possibly guessed what the problem was? The garden has to be watered more than once every other week?

This year I am ambitiously hoping that I will finally grow a successful garden. It takes faithfulness in little things to do big things. So, come August, I guess we’ll see how faithful I was.

Janelle Jessen is a reporter for the Westside Eagle Observer and a longtime resident of the Decatur area. She may be contacted by email at [email protected].

News, Pages 7 on 03/07/2012