I'm still not a gardener

Way back in 2007, Steve and I were looking for a new home. When we saw the house we eventually bought (this one in Dundee), we were both very excited. He loved the unique design and the opportunities for improvement. I loved the yard, and I thought it would be awesome to finally learn how to garden. I actually read articles describing the relaxing benefits of gardening, and that sounded incredible.

Then we moved in. I quickly discovered that I did not enjoy the "relaxing" aspects of gardening. The weeds hurt when I tried to pull them out, and then I got rashes. So I would avoid weeding until the weeds were as tall as I was. I also had no idea how to prepare soil or where to plant which plants. It was overwhelming and unenjoyable to me. And I came to terms with it. Steve laughed, but also came to terms with it. We hired a landscaping crew to keep the weeds in check and to create a landscape that didn't require much from us to keep up.

Today, I took another opportunity to find my inner gardener on a much smaller level. The moms group had arranged an event at Platt Hill Nursery for the kids to plant flowers in a pot for Mother's Day.

Platt Hill is a beautiful place. We walked through the retail section to get back to the huge greenhouse that just oozed beautiful, growing things. Jack was captivated by the scene too. Reid was happily chewing on his keys. I felt positive, enthusiastic even. I was ready to help Jack plant his flowers.

When we got to the table where the nice woman from Platt Hill was going to show us how to do this, I had my first inklings of trouble. Jack was not running over to watch. I had to encourage him a few times to pay attention. Unfortunately, I was standing behind the nice lady, so I didn't see or hear enough to get the full directions.

Jack enjoyed step one: fill pot with dirt. He got right in there. He did alright with step two: pick out flowers. Step three got a little complicated. I struggled to get the flowers out of the plastic containers. Then we both tried digging a hole in the dirt to place the flowers in, but the dirt kept sliding back down, so our holes weren't deep enough. Jack decided he would just push the flowers in hard. I almost stopped him, but I realized that I did not have a better plan.



We managed to get two pots together in about a half an hour. When we finished, I looked around at the pots our friends had made. They had obviously done this before. I'm still not sure how they got so many plants into such little pots and got them so nicely arranged.



So I'm still not a gardener, and I'm okay with it. We'll see how Jack does now that he's had his first exposure. Maybe I'll give him a little corner of the yard and see what he can do.

Jack asked me to take a picture of him and Reid today. Enjoy!