Garden - My First Flower

I  may not be much of a vegetable gardener, but I am an avid tetotaler flower gardener. I come by it honestly. Every year that I can remember my mother has had a vegetable garden and flower gardens. If I would wake early in the mornings in the spring, summer, and fall, I knew where to look for Mom; in the gardens. I will forever see her rump in the air and her head twisted over her shoulder to tell me good morning as she pulled weeds from between the iris or the tomatoes.

Like any kid, I was never going to have gardens flower or vegetable, I could never grow up to be like my Mom! My brother (three years younger than me) thought the same thing. And the one day, before I know it, one day before my brother knows it, we are standing in the midst of our respective gardens discussing plant combinations. Jokes on us!

Mine started with a single pink rose. I planted just a single rose bush by my front stoop. It bloomed. I had done that with the help of God. I even had a friend take a photograph of me and that rose. Of course I forgot that I had black-and-white film in the camera (yes before digital) and the picture seems a little silly for that reason, nonetheless I was and am still proud of that rose.

Growing pains is to say the least about the few years following that. At least I was wise enough to ask my mom's advice all along the way. The funniest that I look back on is when I was building my first bed. I think she probably originated the idea of mulching on a budget. She told me to lay a layer of newspaper down around my plants and add on a layer of mulch. Silly me, I didn't think hard enough to realize that one sheet of newspaper does not make a barrier and a half inch of mulch might as well be considered food for the weeds. A huge weed patch a few weeks later and I had learned my lesson. The next year went much better with full newspapers or more forming a barrier, topped off with threee inches plus of mulch. .