365 Days in the Garden
Gardening on a Cold and Rainy Day
Some flowers never fade, and some gifts keep on giving forever
My mother used to say my father always grew an Italian garden for us. It looked nothing like the painting above.
The gardens from my childhood typically included tomatoes, peppers, and basil. I’m pretty sure there were always some marigolds too, but I don’t think my dad knew back then that they would help repel nematodes. On the other hand, maybe he knew they helped the tomatoes grow, or perhaps he just liked the way they looked.
When I was around 15 years old, I wanted a garden.
We lived in a rented house with a huge backyard. Everything was neatly landscaped by the property owner, but my father got permission to dig up a small section of it so I could have my own garden spot.
Gardening has become an essential and central part of my life. He dug that garden for me by hand for my birthday that year and spent the spring teaching me about gardening. It was a gift I will never forget, and that has been renewed every spring, even though my father died more than 35 years ago. I wrote more about it some two years ago here:
