In The Beginning
I grew up following my Grandma and my Dad around their gardens. Grandma and Grandpa had 11 acres of sandy soil in central Monmouth County, NJ. Grandpa did the veggies; Grandma did the flowers. She had such pretty roses, among many others. It was a wonderful place for a kid; lots of room to wander. There were ramshackle sheds to explore, woods bordering the property, and lots of trees to climb.
Dad always had some sort of garden, even though we moved alot. His favorites were lilies; they always smelled so good. Mom liked plants, too, but she was too busy doing the usual housewife thing to garden much.
It was inevitable, I suppose, or maybe just genetic. When I had a family and a place of my own, I gardened, too. We moved even more than I had as a kid, and I left many gardens behind. Then I got older and achier, and gave it up for a while.
My Dad just recently passed, and we had to start cleaning out his house to sell it. The mountain of garden catalogs, his beautiful garden, and nostalgia, I guess, inspired me to try again.
DH and I have landed in extreme South Texas, and it appears we’ll be here for a while. Gardening down here is a whole ‘nuther animal. We’re blessed (or cursed, depending on perspective) with a long growing season. You can have a spring garden, which you start in December or January, depending on crop, then the garden just sits for the summer months. In August and September, you start the fall garden.
Besides the heat and humidity, you have to contend with an infinite number of bugs, diseases, and other assorted pests. The “soil” is really concrete, masquerading as mucky clay. Hard as a rock when it’s dry, which it usually is, and sticky and slippery when it’s wet. Oy! I’m about to talk myself right out of my garden.
So in January, I came home from Dad’s determined to have a garden. After thinking about it for a while, I decided Square Foot Gardening was the way to go. I’m too old to be digging this concrete and trying to make it into something resembling friable soil, so raised beds and Mel’s Mix it is. If you don’t know what Square Foot Gardening is, click the link. It works; I’ve done it before.
Once I decided how I was going to garden, it was off to the races.
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