What sort of gardener are you?

In the recent past I lived in a leisure community where home owners hired gardeners and landscapers to carry out and make real their gardening dreams. Dreams which were sometimes featured in garden designer magazines.

We, for the most part, are not that sort of gardener. Our reasons for being gardeners and loving gardening are varied. We are enchanted by the artistic composition and challenge that gardens and gardening present. We have succumed to the joy of growing our own food and sharing it with others, either by giving a share of our crop to neighbors and friends or by sharing and trading seed or volunteer plants with others. There are flowers to dress-up the house and yard, and and to bring inside enlivening it with myriad color, form, and fragrance. Many of us just love serving up food that exceeds anything prepared with purchased fruits and vegetables. And then there are those of us who just love to play in the dirt!!!

When I was five years old my parents bought a beautiful cottage on an upstate New York Finger Lake. The water was okay but I was more interested in the Earth. I bought a package of carrot seed and took it to the wooded area behind the cottage and planted them. I planted them in the shade, in clay and knew nothing about watering the seed. Of course, my first effort to master gardening was a dismal failure. I talked to the seeds in their clay coffins and pleaded with them to live and flourish. Although my sprititual and material efforts failed to produce a single carrot, my passion for gardening had begun to sprout and grow.

I asked my Dad to drive me to the farm on the hill that we drove past on the way to the lake. They had cows, chickens and a yard full of geese that I soon learned were hard to reckon with. They were terrifying winged harpies that swarmed after one like Manhatten traffic at rush hour. And just as deadly I might add. But I had seen farmer Yarnell's vast flourishing garden and I was determined to find out their secret.

The farmer's wife was kindly and offered to give me some pointers. The secret to gardening is to know what the seeds being planted require to flourish and produce. Since I couldn't read, I had an adult read the packages to me from then on. But, the real secret to gardening is COMPOST. After that, I begged my Dad to carry one bucket of composted manure after another to my garden. He turned it in for me, read the instructions for planting printed on the packages, and my gardening career took flight. Together we grew flowers from seed and from market packs, and harvested tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, radishes, scallions and later potatoes from our lakeside garden.

Potatoes are my favorite thing to grow because digging them reveals a intriguing cache of hidden treasure. Each spade of dirt yields up yummy nuggets of white, red and golden deliciousness.

I learned at this early age what sort of gardener I am. Obsessed. That sort of gardener. Whether I live in a mountain retreat, by the water's edge or in a major city, I garden. I hope you will garden with me. Share your stories, successes or challenges with us.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and the hope that your gardens will be the highlight of 2010.
avc