I come from a long line of vegetable gardeners. My grandfather was a prize winning tomato and onion grower. He entered them in the county fair each summer and won many ribbons. My grandmother didn’t grow vegetables but she grew the most amazing fuchsia baskets.
My mom is a canner. She loves to feed the whole family and does so my canning. To do this, we had a huge vegetable garden at my great uncles house. My summer memories are of my bare legs covered in dirt because they were sweaty and I had been kneeling all day, weeding. To this day, I am not fond of weeding.
My mom could tell I was not happy. Her solution was to bring my around to loving the garden by letting me choose my own seeds. I am sure her thought was that if I grew my own cucumbers, I would suddenly love to eat them. Boy, was she wrong.
We went to the farm store to look at all the racks of seeds. The seed packets are divided into section: vegetables and flowers. The vegetable section look mostly the same, all green with the occasional orange carrot or pumpkin picture. But the flower section, it’s a riot of colors. That looked way more fun to me! I don’t remember the flowers I chose that first time, probably nasturtiums or marigolds.
My mom succeeded, from that moment on I was a gardener. Each year I would choose different flower: baby’s breath, zinnia, cosmos, bells-of-Ireland, etc. I started to craft with them, by pressing them in books and air dying them. Soon I was making Christmas presents for the whole family. I don’t believe my brothers loved their pressed flower bookmarks as much as I did.
Looking back now, those early years in my uncles garden were good times. I learned a lot about weeds, mostly how much I dislike them. I learned which flowers need to be supported by stakes or they blow over in the wind. I learned about bugs and how gross it is to see an earwig crawl out of a flower that you just picked to bring home. And I learned the power flower have in brightening peoples mood.
On our way home from the garden, we would often drop vegetables off at friends homes. Sometimes they were happy to see us, sometimes not. There’s only so much zuchini a person can eat! But when I pulled out a bouquet of flowers, their faces would light up. Every single time, just like magic.
I think that lesson is why I am still a flower gardener today. Flowers still brighten my mood. And I still share them with others. Now I am sharing them with you!