The Gardners

A story about a reluctant gardener!

There came a time when my bride, who was always interested in flowers, decided she wanted to grow the biggest and most fragrant bug repellent flowers with vibrant colors .

Hence the start of the vegetable garden. Naturally that was planted and cared for by the reluctant groom.

She ordered all the supplies needed for her marigold research from Burpee( supplies garden needs) located some where in California.

She had 2 long boxes which held little wax coated paper sleeves that contained her end -of -growing -season marigold seeds and her alpha-numeric

Notations on booth sides.

It came to pass that lettuce was the only vegtable not always protected ( seemed the kind of lettuce was a factor for survival ) by the marigold odor !

We substituted corn in place of the lettuce which was a delight to our resident squirrels; our back yard had the right height trees for these athletic animals to colonize!

Our daughter was the only one to plant corn that survived the onslaught of the pesky creatures; it was just for one year, however, since she wasn’t interested in working in the garden any more.

We Tried growing gladioli where the corn had been planted. They which were attached by the thrips ( an insect, I believe ).

The next year the cucumbers survived and in abundance, which encouraged my wife to jar pickles which she used as Christmas gifts.

Happily I just had to tend the the large pot that heated the jars.

The marigolds did their job but I realized the garden soil had to be refreshed. Leaf compost was not helpful .

Also, I decided to enhance the soil with a compost tea, which was a pain. By that time my back gave out ( I was not able to lift the rented rototill out of my car trunk any more) so we planted grass seed .

Some of the vegetables should have grown as well as the grass did.

But the cucumbers, squash, watermelon and ornamental gourds were real winners for us.

The draw back was that we only got one or two watermelon each year.

The ornamental gourds and cucumbers were usually in abundance .

The biggest disappointment during my garden experience were the raspberry bushes I suggested to my bride and I eventually planted.

It had Nice tasting fruit but was dangerous to be near. Because of their thorns , I keep a small first aid kit in my pocket while working in the garden. Digging out those plants was a real “joy.” However It was worth it since it was not no longer necessary to carry a first kit while milling around the garden to impress my wife!