Gardening Plans

Spring officially begins in just over two weeks from today. The weather is glorious and this leads me to thoughts of gardening.

Here in our city home we have a pleasant but shady backyard - perfect for hot summer days relaxing in the shade of the huge Manitoba maple trees but NOT-SO-GREAT-FOR-VEGETABLES. I have in the past struggled against the elements but optimist-or-not it never did really well. I remember picking a bowl full of beans once or twice but the carrots often rotted in the ground and the tomatoes were decimated by a freak hail storm or eaten by bugs on many occasions.
My high hopes for feeding all of us from our backyard garden were dashed many times - good thing we were not dependant upon it. I probably should have just kept trying but other things took my attention for a few years - namely my very young children.

We have lots of perennial flowers, bushes and a GREAT-MOUND-OF-RHUBARB that I will be sad to leave behind. For the most part many of my plants are just that - nice plants - nothing that's ties them to me with memories except lovely trips to the garden centre and all are easily replaceable.

I do however have two plants from granny's garden from my childhood which I insist on having. Granny always had a PATCH-OF-ASPARAGUS but I don't think I ever dared to eat it till I was an adult. I just thought the wispy tops were beautiful, regal and perfect for making the fairy dresses of my imagination. Since they were ready long before anything else in the garden I suppose they were queen-of-the-spring in my child's eye. Rhubarb is the other - a standard in many kitchen gardens - coming back bigger and bigger each year until finally it was divided and given to newly-married-novice-gardeners like myself. I love the history that my rhubarb plant possesses - from person to person and finally to me. The stop before me was my mom and dad's garden!

I hope to find both of these plants in my new garden and wonder what other surprises there will be there for me. Perhaps - just in case - I will ask first and if the GARDEN-IS-LACKING I will take a piece of my rhubarb to plant there while leaving the biggest part for the next gardener. It seems rather fitting…maybe she will be a newly-married-novice-gardener like I was…

My long-awaited adventure of God-proportions continues...