There’s no denying it… Spring’s in the air.
Last weekend, I took a peek at my backyard garden and found my lone red chokeberry tree adorned with budding mauve and white flowers alternating with the healthy green leaves gracing the branches.
That tree was a gift from God, but someone at work told me that it might have been a gift from the birds. You see, I didn’t plant that tree. One Spring day a few years ago, I just found what looked like the young life of a tree growing in the center of my patio area. Although my homeowners association does not recommend trees in our backyards because our townhomes don’t really have abundant space for such robust growth, I didn’t have the heart to kill it. Besides, the tree has brought a charm to that space, now shading my patio and keeping the scorching sun from that area. When the tree grows bigger, I intend to plant myself underneath its shade, reading books while enjoying Mother Nature in my backyard.
When I was younger, gardening was never my hobby of choice. I've always enjoyed looking at gardens, admiring the gorgeous blooms and manicured lawns. I never thought that one day I would find myself bent down on my knees, toiling soil and sowing seeds. My accidental gardening took place almost 16 years ago after I bought my own space. The backyard of my home was a picture of colored rocks and nothing else. The former homeowner was a single man (a painter), who obviously wasn’t into planting greens and flowers.
For someone who never did serious gardening, I was blessed with the passion and purpose to make something pretty of that barren area in my backyard. Home Depot became a frequent stopover and I would come home bearing pots of rose varieties and landscape items. Many rose varieties came and went. Unfortunately, a few died since the time they sat under my patio earth. Fortunately, more varieties stayed to uplift my garden scenery. Then came the lavenders, the hostas and other plants whose name I can’t even pronounce. Once in a while, weeds would mess up the picture. I once received a letter from my property management company reminding me to get rid of the weed invasion. Honestly, those undesirable plantings blended so well with the legitimate growth that I didn't even notice.
For a few years since I started growing roses, I would snap a photo of the beauties to show off at work. Later that Spring routine became too old to continue. Nevertheless, I religiously followed the coffee-grind-and-banana-peel-mixture used to fertilize the roses just before the fall. Every year, the blooms came out bigger than ever. Last year, fewer blooms came out because the year before that, the next door neighbor’s monster dog camped out behind my fence which caused me to forget the annual coffee-grind-and-banana-peel-mixture routine.
Two years ago, I planted a variety of peonies, but the catalog company obviously shipped a bad batch because none of the varieties came out. It was a bit heartbreaking for me because peonies are feng shui blessed and I had so looked forward to seeing those flowers grace my garden.
Gardening is hard work, but the joy I experience from the fruits of my labor makes up for the many hours of gardening chore. I recommend this activity to anyone who has time on their hands and who has a need to harvest beauty from the seeds they sow. The joy of gardening is akin to feeling like the Creator... watching the seeds grow, bear life and become one with the Universe.
Happy gardening!
