Ask any gardener and they’ll gladly tell you that they talk, coo, and cajole to their flowers and other flora in their garden. Plants don’t talk back. I think the gardeners forget that when talking to people, they do. So the gardener’s words seem odd at times and down right crazy on occasion.
GG, my Garden Guru, reported to me one day that she felt sore and ached all over, and didn’t know why. My reply was, “Could it have anything to do with your first of the season garden work of turning over the beds for 8 hours the previous day? And being 70 years old plus?” She winked, she blinked, she did a double think “hmm, never thought of that.” My look was, “well, dah!”
I was at my hairdresser’s the other day, chatting gardening while she worked on my hair. We were in the grousing part of gardening. How awful the growing season was last year. How bad the aphids are on some crops. How cold it was to be digging, prepping the garden in February. She asked my, “Don’t you have insulated garden boots?” I just looked at her and guffawed. I thought to myself, “ Isn’t gardening supposed to be in the warm weather? How desperate are we in the Northwest for spring and gardening?’
Another gardening friend told me her secret to gardening in February in Seattle. Hand warmers inside her garden gloves. As Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live would say, “Really!?” I just smiled and said, Hmm, never thought of that.”
The 2011 gardening season is just beginning, and so is the insanity; updates to come as the season progresses. For an example; last year I planted my corn starts so early, I had to protect them with plastic bags held upright with re-bar. My garden looked like I was growing a fine crop of Whammo’s giant bubbles. Last summer was so cold and wet, the entire corn crop went to feed the animal’s at PAWS Wildlife Rescue in Lynnwood.
