RELUCTANT GARDENER

“Do you want to go check the garden?” My son Alex asked as we sat on the back porch enjoying a warm spring evening.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Not really.”

I had somehow become the head gardener in our one year old garden. My husband Steven had put in a HUGE, and I mean huge, garden last year with raised beds, surrounded by a six foot fence covered with bird netting to protect the plants.

The winter before he put the garden in he spent every night watching videos on how to work with only natural ingredients to get rid of any mold or pests that tried to ruin his hard work. He started the plants by seed. Racks of plants under grow lights lined our basement walls. I often thought about what the neighbors must have been thinking when they saw the grow lights reflecting from the basement windows on chilly nights, wondering if they thought we had started a pot farm.

Last summer he spent every evening working his crops. Several kinds of tomato, peppers, and lettuce. Snap peas and cucumbers. Honestly I can’t even remember all the plants he had put in, but it was a lot.

This year when I asked when he was going to start planting he shook his head and told me it wasn’t going to happen this year. He was just too busy.

So that’s how I earned my reluctant gardener badge. I sighed again as I got up from the porch and headed for the garden gate. “I suppose we should check on them.”

Alex and I had already planted some early spring plants a month earlier. I’d actually hoped Steven would see the plants growing and trigger his need to feel the earth between his fingers as he took over the garden. But I was wrong.

I went over to the raised container that I’d planted some onions, beets, and arugula in. I looked at Alex and shrugged my shoulders. “They look the same to me. What do you think?”

Alex inspected the plants. “They haven’t gotten much bigger.” He stood up and patted me on the shoulder. “But at least they’re still alive!”

I had to laugh. “That’s true.” I stuck my finger in the dry dirt. “I guess it was a good thing you mentioned coming out here. They need water.” I went and got the hose. Steven had created a wicking system for watering. I placed the hose in the tube that went down to the bottom of the planting beds. While I waited for it to fill I looked over at the snap peas that had somehow made it through the winter and was already producing some beans. Some of Steven’s lettuce had come back in another bed.

“When do you want to go out to the nursery and get the tomato plants?” Alex asked as he looked at the snap pea plants seeing how many were ready to harvest.

“Maybe next weekend.” I said as I looked down at the concrete pavers that the garden was sitting on. Weeds were beginning to pop through. “I guess I should get some Round-Up for those.”

Alex’s eyes got big. “You can’t use Round-Up in the garden!”

I had to laugh at how horrified he’d looked. “I know. I was only kidding.” With my one hand still holding the hose, I leaned over and pulled a few of the weeds out from between the cracks. Handing them to Alex I pointed over to the covered bin Steven had used for the green trimmings. “Can you toss these in there?”

Alex came over and took them out of my hand. “Are you putting your herbs in again this year?”

I looked around the garden and began to wonder where I was going to put each plant. “I am.” I nodded. “And maybe I’ll add some flowers this year, too.”