herbiehancock

When I was a little girl, I lived with my family out in the country on a lot that was nearly an acre in size.  About one third of that lot was made up of our garden.  We grew all sorts of things in that garden, but some things we grew every year.   Strawberries, peas, green beans, sweet corn, lima beans, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, and tomatoes were our regular crops.  Dad and Mom would experiment with other things from year to year, but those were the basics that they kept going back to.  Some of the other plants they tried growing were onions, radishes, rhubarb, lettuce, cabbage, strawberry popcorn, peanuts, and potatoes.  They liked to try something new once in a while for the sake of variety. Yesterday, I was thinking about the garden that we had back then for two reasons.  The first reason was that for the first time in a long time, the sun was shining brightly here yesterday.  We had blue skies instead of the dreary, drab grey that has ...

I've been working on hoeing the weeds out of the flower beds. I don't have a garden where I live now-- just a couple of flower beds. My parents kept a garden all during my growing up years though, and I have had gardens of my own at other homes where I have lived. My poor flower beds have been neglected of late, and the weeds are flourishing much better than the few flowers I have planted. It felt good to go after those weeds with a hoe. It felt good to do some work, release some stress, and make the flower beds look neater all at the same time. It struck me that I was actually feeling grateful for those weeds growing there. I know most people are probably not grateful for weeds, but having weeds to hoe is more than just a chore to me. Having weeds to hoe means that those weeds are growing in a flower bed that I take care of because it belongs to me. That flower bed is part of the yard that I own and in that yard is the house where I live. So having weeds to hoe reminds...