Gardens.

Gardens.

I just love gardens. From a small seed or sapling can come a whole feast for your family or neighborhood. My dad used to have this huge garden when I was little at our old house. I remember one time he was using the hoe to make rows for a new season when he found a rabbit borough beneath the garden! Those baby bunnies were adorable. Another fond memory of mine was making rainbows with the hose when I would water it, they were (and still are) magical. A few years after living at our new house, I can't remember how long, he decided to make another garden, this one significantly smaller. But we had many good things come out of it, like the year he planted sunflowers and we had more seeds than we could eat. Or the year of the failed pumpkin patch, we ended up having to buy some that Halloween for jack-o-lanterns.

It seems that every year our garden either gets bigger, or my dad tries to grow another vegetable, or fruit. Not all of them were successful, note the pumpkins. We got blueberry bushes, those didn't take, we got raspberry bushes, those didn't take either, and it seems that this year our tomatoes might be duds as well, though there are a couple green ones waiting to ripen!

It baffles me sometimes how some people are so against gardens, or don't want to grow anything at all. They are cost effective, beautiful, and can satisfy you in many ways! Gardens not only provide food, but many people find them soothing. There are also tons of ways that you can make a garden even if you have no lawn, or so that little to no weeds grow (without the use of chemicals), or within a neighborhood if you don't have too much time to dedicate yourself. One of my dad's trade secrets, he probably doesn't want me sharing this, is he uses grass clippings (from mowing the lawn) in between the rows, it acts as dividers as well as cutting down on weeds! I'm not sure if he's a genius, or has some genius connections.

I can't wait to get my own house, or more likely an apartment first, and start a garden, or at the very least sign up for a neighborhood one. It's one of my favorite things to be able to walk outside and get some lettuce, tomatoes, and snap peas and throw together myself a salad! Does anyone else have any green thumb ideas or secrets?

Naomi Odlin

PS: my mom also keeps a garden, a flower garden! Though many of her flowers are perennials, meaning she doesn't have to plant them every year, so it has much less up keep than my dad's vegetable garden.