My dad started an essay for a class that he took while taking a college course in Missoula, Montana. The line has always struck me and I am not even sure exactly what Dad meant by it. I was about twelve and I asked him and he said something about planting ideas. The essay was about a rather challenging trip our family took to Glacier National Park over the 4th of July weekend when our tent blew down in the middle of the night.
These days I am a gardener who plants and plants and sees little result for all my work. I have a very shaded backyard which seems to work against the tomatoes I have planted. I have wild rabbits that seem to think I plant to give them treats. I have slugs that eat rhubarb. Rhubarb! (Which has poisonous leaves and should kill slugs.) My garden ends up scraggly and I quit tending it by mid-summer every year.
The successes I have had have been perennial herbs, thyme and mint and sage. I have yarrow that keeps growing. My dianthus or pinks comes back every year despite being sold as an annual. The rabbits seem to leave the marigolds and zinnias alone for the most part. They don't eat begonias.
So, a new garden season approaches. I am considering what to try. I really enjoy a tomato fresh from the garden. Last year I had success with a patio tomato on my deck. I might try that again. I would like to get some chicken wire to keep the rabbits from completely killing the raspberry and blackberry bushes I have tried to grow. For the front flower beds, I might buy some begonias and zinnias and marigolds again. I am trying to keep the yarrow from going wild. I look at lovely photos of varieties of gorgeous flowers, but I wish they were ranked on how delicious they might be viewed by rabbits, because it is really discouraging to come out every morning to find nubs where the beautiful flowers should be.
But, hope springs eternal and I am a notorious planter, I guess. I can't wait to go to the garden shop and get some inspiration and things to attempt in my garden this year. Even if it sometimes feels like the time the windstorm blew down the tent in the middle of the night and 6 of us tried to sleep in the station wagon.
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