Why is there something so therapeutic about gardening? Everywhere I’ve ever lived, two things have remained constant for me: a) I MUST decorate, and b) I MUST garden. For some reason, a place does not feel like home to me until I’ve put something into dirt.
Naturally, I’ve thought quite a bit about the poetic nature in all of this. When one puts plants into the ground, they are putting down roots. They plan on being there a few months later to harvest the outcome. They are staking a claim, telling the world that this is “their” space in the world, their plant kingdom, and that they can create a space where things thrive and then feed a family.
In my mind, there is nothing so beautiful as learning to garden. And this includes everything from performing actions of weed clearance using trimmer lines to understanding the soil and buying the best soil fertilizer based on it. It is a skill that everyone should dabble in, somehow, and I am glad that my 4 year old is already really into it. Gardening is cheaper than therapy, really.
Even when we lived in apartments and townhouses, I learned how to garden using containers. I wasn’t always the best at it, and sometimes I even went a little crazy and wrote love poems to my Basil Plants.
There was the time I had just found I was pregnant for the first time and began the incessant crazy nesting by building a window-frame garden.
There was the time I gardened in our tiny CA townhouse.
And then upgraded to large deer-proof garden beds once we bought the “Blue House”.
And then we came to TX and I immediately put herbs into some containers.
Last, but not least, we are gardening in our new planter beds, picked up for a steal of a deal (along with the dirt!) off of Craigslist this past week.
Obviously, we need a “little” more dirt to fill the other two, and I’d better get a move on because the TX growing season for most of my favorite veggies is short! I had to buy all of my seedlings this time, because I didn’t know whether we’d be getting a house or not until late February, and we were also really busy 😉 Luckily, we have an awesome nursery just 2 blocks away that has wonderful organic seedlings for just $1-2/each! And I was able to pick their brains about some of the ins and outs of TX gardening, which was quite helpful.
All in all, I am so thankful that I get to “put down roots” here in this lovely little cottage, in what is already turning out to be such a lovely Texas Spring.
 Our House: Front Yard Landscaping |
 Our Texas Container Garden |
 How Does Your Garden Grow? |
Touching Heaven |
I love to garden, but it isn’t easy up here in CT. I had to put a fence around my veggie beds because the deer eat everything. And of course, it is a pretty short growing season. BUT, I still do it because I agree that it feels therapeutic… a celebration of watching magic unfold.
Watching magic unfold! That’s a great way to put it. It does feel like magic!
Jenna has been growing plants on our little apartment balcony for years — she even has a mango tree, of all things, that is about 2 feet tall in a little pot! She can’t wait to move into our new house and join the ranks of real, credible gardeners. =)
Caleb, when do you guys get to move in? And container gardening is certainly credible– in many ways, it’s harder!
Our foundation repairs were delayed by weather, but it looks like we’ll move in 4/6! And I agree that container gardening is harder – I’m the one who gets to drag a mango tree inside every time the temperature drops! =D