Gardening, the New Hobby

Given my parents' lack of interest in gardening, I never thought I'd list gardening as a hobby.  When we lived in Medford, we lived in the woods and our mostly-shaded yard contained as much moss as grass.  Besides the trees my parents planted for my brother and me, the only time I recall my parents trying to plant anything was when my mom scattered some wildflower seed behind our patio.  Nothing grew.  In Haddonfield, we mowed and we raked, that was it. 

I have no idea where my interest in gardening came from, but once I had a yard of my own, I couldn't wait to start planting.  Yet it took a season to have the confidence to just plant and see what happens.  The former owners had installed window boxes below our porch windows and although I thought nothing made a house look more quaint and homey than window boxes overflowing with flowers, I suddenly felt self-conscious about my gardening skills essentially being on display.  I remember my neighbor assuring me that planting something isn't as permanent as it felt - if I decided I didn't like the location, dig it up and move it! 

For two people who had no idea what we were doing, Chris and I have been reasonably successful at gardening.  And by successful, I mean that sometimes people stop and tell us what pretty flowers we have or gawk it how high our tomato plants grew.  (Our tomato plants did grow really high last year, but didn't actually produce many tomatoes.)  We've learned that experimenting is a big part of gardening.  Since our vegetables didn't do so well last year, we scaled back and focused more on flower this year.  And the new garden we put in last year is a difficult spot because of the presence of a large tree and tree roots, but we're going to keep on planting until we figure out what works. 

I used to not understand gardening as a hobby.  I thought that gardening was a one-time event - you planted a bunch of stuff, but otherwise, came back every now and then to water.  I didn't realize how much time you invest in "tending" a garden.  Once I've cleaned up the garden in the spring and planted everything, (which is a few weekends worth of work) the daily weeding and watering can take a half an hour to an hour.  And this is to tend to an eighth of an acre. 

Gardening really has become a labor of love.  I enjoy visiting nurseries, learning about the plants and deciding what to plant and where.  I find myself staring at the little gardens on my eight of an acre and mulling over future improvements.  Maybe I could take out those shrubs I've never liked, or add some more color there.  Or I notice more weeds that need pulling or plants that need pruning. 

Being a parent of two young children leaves little time to devote to large-scale gardening projects, so I plan little by little.  The short growing season in Minnesota is another limiting factor.  I appreciate that being my gardening hobby forces me outside each day and gives me something to share with my kids.  They can play while I garden and of course they like to dig in the dirt!  I hope they'll learn along with me over the years. 

A huge, and surprising, downside to gardening is how expensive it is!  Every spring, we spend hundreds of dollars on annuals and vegetable plants, soil and mulch to garden our eighth of an acre.  I'll buy a few more plants as the season goes on either to add to what I already have or to replace annuals that only thrive for the first half of the season.  Then there's always new tools to buy - another watering can, pruner or rake.  Along with kitchen stores, gardening centers should be added to the list of places I can't enter without a strict spending budget. 

Ironically, now that my dad is remarried, he has become a gardener, at least under the careful direction of my step-mother.  When my step-mother moved in, she brought not only her nice furniture, matching dishes and tasteful wall hangings, but all her plants from her old yard.  She has a strict watering schedule, which my dad dutifully sticks to whenever she's out of town. With a new deck, professionally landscaped front yard and trimmed trees, the yard is a place you want to hang out in now.