The nights have been cool here in Empire, Alabama. I went out on the deck this morning to dump the old coffee grounds into our flower bed and as I looked southward toward the barn, the trees had a satin sheen from the heavy morning frost.
As fresh coffee brewed, I looked through a Stark Brother's catalog at all the fruit trees. It was all I could do to keep from getting on the phone and calling their operator -- "Yes ma'am I'd like one of each please....yes and send them to me at.......and is it possible for me to get them tomorrow?????"
We have a lot of fruit trees in our yard, but I don't think you can have too many. Each year in January when the winter weather chases us indoors, I turn to these seed catalogs and daydream about that time in early spring when the fruit trees bloom.
I know that gardening is in my blood. I love the smell of fresh turned earth and how it feels to walk over with bare feet. Planting and tending a garden is not easy work. It would obviously be much easier to run down to the farmer's market and snap up all the fresh fruit and vegetables you want. And if I ever really put a pen to paper and did the math, it would probably be cheaper too. But we would miss the experience of planting and harvesting. The need to garden comes from somewhere deep inside and impossible to explain here. I do know this: working the soil and watching things grow and eating vine ripe tomatoes on toasted bread in the summertime is one of life's pleasures that is important to us.
Gardening has been often used as a metaphor for life:
"As you sew, so shall you reap"
or
"Our Mind is a garden, our thoughts are the seeds
You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds."
There are many more.
I know that having a big garden is not an option for some folks. But do youself a favor and get a small round pot...fill it with potting soil....put in a few lettuce seeds and watch them grow. Let's have a conversation after you've had your first FRESH salad and you tell me what it's worth.
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