Stories, Art, Food, Teaching, Travel, and the other Loves of my Life

Stories, Art, Food, Teaching, Travel, and the other Loves of my Life
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day"

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Simple Pleasures: Patio Garden



As a child, my parents did a lot of gardening. At Mom's house, she had planter boxes bursting with flowers, arrangements designed to attract ladybugs, butterflies, and bees. She'd plant things to use in the kitchen, research plants that needed less water, plants that do well in our climate. She planted many different things, with the theory that at least a few of them would take off and do well.



My dad was totally different. At his house, he approached it more like agriculture: he'd plant fifteen tomato plants, twenty ears of corn, and sunflowers. Not much variety, but we ate well, and he always had a soft spot for the sunflowers.


Small Pots: Parsley, Kitty Grass, Blue Bells, Lavender, Mint

Now, I'm the kind of girl who thinks everyone is entitled to a garden, no matter how small or shadowed your patio or yard or window box may be. We've got a lot going this season: strawberries, tomatoes, carrots, beets, basil, dill, cilantro, mint, lavender, parsley... and of course, kitty grass. But I have to replant that every few weeks because they are absolutely insatiable.


Oscar

Louis







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