Many years ago I read a story about a woman who loved gardening, tending to almost a half-acre of vegetables, flowers and shrubs. Her husband had power equipment and was always there for her as she worked in her garden. As she aged, the garden shrank in size and when her husband died, she only had the energy to cultivate a 10X10 foot garden. Finally, when she was in her late eighties, her garden consisted of a window box outside her bedroom - but she loved it as much as her large garden of her younger days. The day she died, she looked out of the window at her window box and smiled.
When Aloma and I lived in Pittsford, New York, we had a good sized yard that we planted in flowering trees, shrubs and flowers. I had a thriving vegetable garden during the short summer and supplied vegetables to our table plus to our neighbors. Every evening after I got home from work, we would walk around the yard and inspect every tree, shrub and plant. We loved it.
The backyard of our Mooresville, North Carolina home was wooded and steeply sloped to Lake Norman so our area to plant was smaller than in New York, but still large enough for wonderful trees, shrubs and plants. My vegetable garden thrived until our neighbor’s trees produced too much shade. We still walked the property daily to discuss what new plants we wanted and plants that needed care.
Our new home in Cary has even less space, but we have planted every inch of our mulched area and walk around every evening looking at every plant. We love it as much was we did our New York or Mooresville yard. When we return from a vacation, the first thing we do is inspect our plants.
Someday, I hope we will have a window box to look at as we go to sleep.
Seasoned Man
stevelem117@gmail.com