Gardening Is Unnatural

Yes, gardening is unnatural ... for me at least ... I believe I was standing behind the greenhouse door when the gardening gene was handed out to so many others.  As far as I can tell, both sides of the family have not only green thumbs, but green hands. My father at 82 still maintains an immaculately manicured lawn and yard worthy of a golf green. He gets very zen when on his riding lawnmower (he used a push mower until just a few years ago when his arthritis got bad), and loves it when people stop and tell him his yard is gorgeous.  My mother was a whiz with roses and gardens in general.  My parents partnered on lots of gardening projects, including large vegetable gardens, building a rock garden, creating from scratch a patio made of bricks, and many more.  And, natch, both sets of grandparents where gardening wizards.

It's not that I hate flowers or vegetables or even gardens in general, I don't want to work in them.  It started with what my dad called "garden parties." Ahh, you say, kindly ladies and Queen Elizabeth in floral dresses and big hats, drinking tea and eating petit fours, and having a lovely time chatting with like ladies. No, garden parties were my parents' euphemism for going out rain or shine and gardening all day long. They loved it. I hated it. It involved dirt and worms and hot and cold and rain. Not my cup of tea at all (and believe me there there were no petit fours involved).  I was very much fonder of reading or riding my bicycle.  My dad was simply trying to pass along some excellent life skills and a hobby that gave he and my mom long hours of pleasure, but they didn't account for children not liking gardening (or any activity) from morning to night.  Gardening gave them great pleasure, but bored my brother and I permanently to the point I've deliberately chosen to live in apartments or condos and my brother employs a yard service just so we don't have to deal with "garden parties." 

Yet, with the explosion of a quite early springtime here in Portland, and even with all my protestations of hating gardening, I've felt a familiar and familial pull toward the store gardening sections where I've spent some time looking at flowers and organizing them into plots in my mind.  I think it has little to do with a true love of gardening and more to do with the some of the pleasure and beauty I must have gained by osmosis while attending my parents' "garden parties."  And even though I'm not a master gardener like my parents, with time and understanding my parents love of gardening, I'm finally free to just enjoy the container gardens I've had on my decks over the years and finally grateful to my parents for the garden parties.  So, even though gardening is unnatural to me, flowers and beauty are not unnatural to me as you can see by this photo of my latest deck garden still under revision.