Growing memories

{Back door of my grandmother's home : circa 1999}

I come from a long line of gardeners.  My grandmother had an amazing green thumb and had a large square garden in her backyard and grew a variety of plants in and around the house.  I remember clearly the Clematis that climbed a trellis right outside her backdoor so as you walked out you were greeted with an airy wall of delicate purple flowers and lovey green leaves.  She had a huge hill of rhubarb growing that we would suck on after dipping the end in a cup of sugar she would provide. I remember eating garden produce like sugar snap peas and raspberries right out of our hands as we picked. She didn't believe in spraying and loved that her garden was clean of chemicals.  Oh and the ground cherries-so delicious to pop right out of their paper-like shells and eat immediately except if we were saving up for a pie.  Rhubarb-ground cherry pie is still my favorite even though I haven't had it for years.

{My new garden box with lettuce varieties}

My husband is blessed with a green thumb as well. I can grow things but he has like magical powers and we are amazed at his ability to resurrect plants that look like they  are ready for the compost pile. Every year we plant a variety of flowers and vegetables around the house. We don't have a set spot for either but intermix them together.  This year we planted kale, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, broccoli, basil, cilantro, butternut squash, and cucumbers.  Plus we watched a master gardener class with Ron Finley and we are rooting and will plant a sweet potato bc he made it look so easy. And then we have a whole variety of flower pots and window boxes that we filled in yesterday. My grandmother loved geraniums and this year I have two varieties planted in pots to remind me of her all summer long. I don't have an actual photograph of her smiling while gardening but in my mind I have many snapshots.

With our extra amount of together we stumbled upon an Epic Gardening video with Kevin and we learned a lot about ginger and have a large root planted in a shallow pot.  Both the sweet potato and ginger pot may need to live inside our house in order to stay warmer if we have an unusually chill fall season.  Today we celebrate old memories and new ones we are making together.  We will always look back on the 2020 spring/summer pandemic with interesting memories of gardening, good food, good books, extra streaming time, and planting some new adventures. Peace.