Rediscovering the Joy of Gardening

For years my house has looked like the house that Malcome lives in in Malcome In the Middle. . . overgrown, underepaired, shutters hanging off the windows, etc. However, we have been slowly chipping away at stuff inside the house, making it a warm and cozy place for our family to come home to. We have finally reached the point where we can start paying attention to the exterior and so we have been having fun putting in shrubs, planting flowers and vegetables and all the rest.

Things really started to get serious when we put a lawn in. I used to watch my across the street neighbor sitting on his front steps, watching his lawn grow, putting down fertilizer, watering and mowing and laugh under my breath that I was not in such bondage. However, I have now become a slave to the lawn. We put in sod, just a small patch, because we didn't want to have to irrigate our entire 75x100 lot. The landscaper instructed me to water it deeply everyday for two weeks, give it its first mowing, and then fertilize it. Now, about a month since the installation, I understand the subltle joy of looking out your front window or from your front steps at a lush, living carpet of green. I get excited that the lawn is so healthy it needs to be cut once a week. I get thrilled when the stipes my lawn mower leaves in the grass remind me of Yankee Stadium. I breath deeply as walk up the front path and take in the pleasant aroma of growing things and good dirt.

From the lawn my interests turned to putting in shurbs around the house. I have made a little border of birds nest spruce and seasonal flowers up the path. I have made a little woodland on the grassless side of the path of Rhodadendrons and Hostas. I have started putting foundations plantings on the grass side the sweeps along the house climaxing in a arch around a new Dogwood I put in. It is taking shape beautifully. I've now started making a little utility garden in the back yard of fruit bushes, herbs and vegetables.

Yesterday my wife commented to me over breakfast, "Remember how when we first moved down here all we would do is watch our Senior Citizen neighbors work together on their yard? I wonder if that means we are becoming Senior Citizens".

I wonder