Dreaming Green

I hail from a lineage that boasts of generations of dirt-digging, seed-planting, weed-pulling, veggie-sniffing folks who have a secret (and not so secret) love affair with watering cans, dirty gardening gloves and fresh, ripe manure in the mornings.

I'm not ashamed of these inbred compulsions (although I won't necessarily volunteer the manure thing until I know you a little better). I actually believe that this odd instinct to grub around in the dirt and grow things helped my husband fall in love with and consequently want to marry me. In fact, his first view of me was in the garden. (We know of another great love story that began this way, but in the interest of full disclosure -which I wasn't - I was semi-modestly clad in a tank top and pair of ratty cutoff shorts. Fig leaves have never suited me). I'm sure he thought to himself, "Now here's a girl who could make sure that my family will never grow hungry." Although I suspect the little cutoff shorts didn't hurt either.

So this year I found myself with a hungry workin' man, freshly delivered back from his patriotic duty in Kuwait and a ravenous, growing 1 1/2 year old girlie who cannot stop learning the names of foods so that she can clamor for them endlessly. I must feed my family. And feed my family well.

But there's a even deeper magic to be found in the garden. It goes beyond the need to fill restless hands and empty tummies. One feels closer to God in the garden. There's something about helping with life - beginning it, growing it, tending it, fighting for it, hoping for it, and then enjoying the fruits of it - that allows you to find and sit quietly beside a secret part of God's heart. Some of my best quiet times are spent vigorously weeding or carefully watering, gently tending these precious green things I've helped to grow.

So here I begin the beautiful journey of The Garden. It'll be a tale of adventure, romance, comedy, and yes, some horrors (think SLUGS) to be found along the way. And you, my faithful reader, will be subjected to it all (should you choose to continue to visit my blog, of course). I am confident that in the end, it will be a tale worth telling. A tale to be told year after year, with new challenges and championships to be found along the way. And if I am very lucky, I will be able to share pictures and posts of a beautifully producing garden, a happily fed family and an even happier gardener, wife, mama, and daughter of God - ME.

So, without further ado, please enjoy the beginnings of my dreams of green.

Little Butternut Squash plants



Tiny Roma Tomato plants



Itty bitty Basil guys - don't you just wanna pinch their cheeks?