Green Thumb

It is my personal opinion that green thumbs are hereditary and that they also seem to skip a generation.  (Very much like having twins.)  My paternal grandfather Harry was a fantastic gardener.  He always had a huge vegetable garden filled with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, horseradish, and tons of other things I can't even recall.  He had grape vines and some of the most beautiful flowers.  My maternal grandmother Doris was a bit of a gardener as well.  She never had the elaborate veggie garden but always had beautiful potted plants.  She grew flowers from seeds.  She nurtured those plants like they were her babies.

My parents dabbled in gardening when my sister and I were little.  I think we grew corn once, potatoes, and always the random tomato plant.  For a long while my mom had the most gorgeous gladiolas.  As we got older the flowers and veggies were less and less.  Mom has started gardening a little bit more recently.  I convinced her to plant some of my extra green bean seedlings and she still comes up with a random tomato plant.  Her flowers are nice too but if things need any more maintenance than watering she isn't going to grow it.

I would like to thank my grandparents, Harry and Doris, for my green thumb.  I'm lucky when it comes to plants.  They just like to grow for me.  There is something magical about sticking a seed in the ground, watching it, watering it, and loving it while it provides you with something delicious to eat.  In my veggie garden I grow a lot of normal things, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zucchini, and green beans.  Every year I try and branch out and do something out of the ordinary as well.  This year I'm trying out brussel sprouts.  I've also turned last years dud melon patch into a pumpkin patch.  Of course I couldn't go with normal pumpkins.  We are going to have pretty reddish orange giant pumpkins.  I have raspberries planted on the side of the house.  Only three out of nine made it to their second year.  The ones that came back are growing rapidly and look like I may get a pint or two of berries.

My flowers out front this year include white and red pinwheel petunias, yellow, orange, and red gerbera daises, purple and yellow pansies, and marigolds.  I think the marigolds will be yellow and orange.  I started them from seeds so you never really know for sure til they bloom.  My  yellow and red rhododendron are all bloomed out.  They were beautiful.  My lilac is currently in bloom and I'm waiting to see if the pink hydrangeas I planted will stay pink.  We've got a lot of pine trees so the soil might be acidic enough to turn them blue.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do not.  The bleeding heart put on a beautiful show this spring as well.

I'm anxious for summer.  I can't wait for my little plants to start flowering and for those flowers to turn into tasty treats.  I look forward to the therapeutic calm that comes from playing in the dirt as well as the excitement the children and I will share while we're picking big red tomatoes.