By Denise Crane

I am a “wanna be” gardener. I say that knowing that I have not turned my black thumb into a green thumb yet, but I am headed in a better direction. I started a garden in my backyard about six years ago. I started by putting a messy frame together of repurposed wood that I found at people’s curbs or was leftover from days when my husband used to make things now and again.

It wasn’t pretty.

Yet in spite of its “not quite buttoned up” appearance, I started anyway. My husband was a great sport about it. We got lots and lots of bags of soil. I started compost bins (that’s another story for another day), I researched eco-friendly ways to feed the soil and keep weeds and bugs away. I got a few tomato and strawberry plants and planted okra from seeds. My husband and my granddaughter love tomatoes. I have a friend who has had the same strawberry plants for years. I had heard okra was easy to grow.

I know people who grow bushels of tomatoes. They eagerly await the ideal time to plant them, they know the right kind to get and know exactly when they are going to bear fruit. My poor tomatoes tried hard. I couldn’t seem to figure out the right amount of water, nor did I realize how often they need to be fed. They struggled along producing a few tomatoes until the fall. Well after I was supposed to have pulled the plants up, they started growing buckets of tiny tomatoes. The weather was nearing time for the first freeze, so I went out and harvested every green tomato on the plants. Turns out if you put them on a windowsill, they will ripen. I also learned to make a good green tomato sauce. Lesson one for gardening…Persevere. Keep trying even when things don’t seem to be going the way you want.

I was glad I had gotten some strawberry plants. The ones I started from roots didn’t take well, but between the two types, I got some pretty flowers and a few berries. I actually might have had a pretty good yield of berries, but the bunnies in our neighborhood seem to like them a lot. It’s just sort of my gift to them. Lesson two for gardening…Sometimes you put in the labor for some purpose unknown.

Turns out, okra really is easy to grow. Those plants took off. They nearly choked out the tomatoes. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to let the okra grow too big. But I figured that out fairly quickly. The issue with the okra was that no one in our family except me likes okra. Lesson three for gardening…Don’t grow things that no one likes to eat.

My husband has reframed my garden since that first season and graciously did it with repurposed wood rather than going and buying a garden kit. I’ve tried different methods of planting and feeding. I’ve tried different things in the garden every year. I mostly don’t grow all that much because it’s hot and dry in the summer here and staying on top of the watering is still a challenge. I think mostly I just like to put my hands in the dirt. I like to be surprised when things start to grow. I like to try doing things as close to “naturally” as can be done in a suburban garden plot with bagged soil. I like to show my grandchildren growing seasons. And I like bunnies.

I think I will keep at it.