GARDEN

You don't need time, sun, or good soil to garden.

If you pick the right plants you can still have flowers, herbs, even veggies.

Of course, if you have a cat you'll want to grow catnip in one corner to keep the curious animal away from the flowers in the other, and if you have a dog you'll want to put it up high where you keep your breakables.  I grew up with dogs, I know how they are.  Any dog can do anything their human does.  That's how they think.

I have a 1/8 acre or smaller plot with some sunny spots and some shady ones, with horrible Maryland Piedmont clay -- you can't really call it soil because it really is just like the clay in your high school art class.

A young relative has a nice-sized plot with some sunny and some shady spots, and she has horrible coastal sand -- you can't really call it soil because it has had almost no improvement.

She wants to grow something and her tomatoes punked out in 2012 in the miserable heat of June.

I've been able to grow a bunch of stuff -- vegetables, flowers, things that attract birds and bees and butterflies.

If you've been laid off or paid to retire or something like that, and you haven't tried gardening yet, try some things.  And if you have a black thumb instead of a green one, maybe I can help you change your luck.

© Patricia Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved