In early May, I will begin my yearly analysis treatments which will last approximately six months. Are they expensive? Not at all. In fact, they are as free as the sweet air we breathe and available to everyone that has a yard.
Anyone who has turned over a shovel full of rich black dirt on a crisp morning in early spring will know exactly what I mean. To a lot of us, working in a garden has the same soothing affect as sitting high atop a cliff watching the ocean softly caress a sandy beach. Gardeners know full well that tilling up the soil, planting seeds and caring for vegetables or flowers is an excellent way to deal with stress.
I’ll never forget the care free days I spent helping my grandma in her huge vegetable garden as a young boy. I have fond memories of us sitting next to the pot belly stove looking through seed catalogs in late winter. Even though I was only eight or nine years old, she always wanted my opinion on various vegetables as she turned the pages. “Should we plant Red Pontiac, Kennebec or Yukon Gold potatoes this year?” she would ask. “What about the peas? Do we plant Little Marvel or should we go with Green Arrow this time?” Little did I realize that my grandmother was planting the seeds of self therapy in my sole that would one day help me deal with life’s pressures.
I started my first garden when my wife and I got married back in 1971. It was very small but grew bigger each year as I learned the ins and outs of gardening.
Instead of buying your seeds in small boxes from an area hardware store try buying them in bulk from your local seed company. It can save you a great deal of money.
I start my own tomato plants inside the house. I always mix three bags of top soil with one bag of worm casings that you can buy at almost any nursery. I put the mixture in peat pots, add two tomato seeds to each container and set them in front of a window where they’ll get plenty of sunshine. Keep the soil moist and you should have tiny tomatoes plants in about seven days. After a few weeks of growing indoors, I like to harden them off before planting them in the garden by setting them outside in the sun when it’s warm during the day and bring them back in at night for a week or so.
Potatoes, radishes, peas, beans, corn, peppers, onions and cucumbers are all easy to grow and can be started from seed in the garden once all signs of frost are gone.
My six children were never interested in gardening when they were young. Maybe it was the work aspect of it which was some thing they typically stayed away from like the black plague. They are all adults now and have blessed me with seven grandchildren so I get a second chance at luring children into the world of gardening.
I figured I would have to plant some thing that grows to an impressive size and requires as little work as possible to gain the interest of the grand kids.
I’ve never seen a boy or girl in my life that didn’t love pumpkins so I decided to go with them. The large seeds are very easy to plant and can grow to well over a hundred pounds. It worked beautifully. The kids took to them like a like a duck to water. When the pumpkins are a few weeks old I let each child pick the one they think will get the biggest. We carefully carve their names on the pumpkins so they can take care of them by pulling the weeds and watering them. They race out to my garden on every visit to see if their pumpkin is bigger than their siblings. Perhaps they will become gardeners when they grow up thanks to the time they spent as children in the pumpkin patch.
You don’t need a huge spot in your yard to try your hand at gardening. An area as small as four feet by four feet will hold two or three tomato plants so why don’t you grab a shovel and give it a try this spring.
The self therapy is absolutely free.
