I grew up a farm girl, but I was a really rotten farm girl. I hated living 10 miles from town. I hated hoeing our garden, which was really an enormous field. I hated loading cantaloupes and watermelon into a truck in the 108 degree August sun. I hated turning hay bales in the field so that they wouldn't get moldy underneath when it was damp. I hated riding the back of the sugar beet thingie (I've blocked the name of it) and stabbing stray beets with a big hook and tossing them in the...well, sugar beet thingie.
Ever since leaving the farm, I have scrupulously avoided anything remotely related to planting, watering, weeding, picking, canning, freezing, or anything that even hints of "gardening." (Well, once I did try not to kill a tomato plant in a pot that someone gave me, but that has been about the extent of it.)
To my surprise, though, I have started to become interested in growing flowers. Or, to be more accurate, I have started to become interested in my husband growing flowers. (I still have that weeding, watering thing to overcome.)
He has planted roses in our backyard, and tulips, daffodils, bleeding hearts, poppies, and something else that starts with a "p." (Remember, I've blocked all knowledge of plants.) In the front by the sidewalk are iris and wild flowers and more daffodils and poppies and something else that starts with "p."
I was horrified when he trimmed the roses back to stumps of plants. I couldn't believe they could ever grow back. But they have. They have gone crazy. Each time I look out the kitchen window, I get a little thrill to see the riot of maroon and yellow and peach colors. I walk out the front gate and smile at the iris that are so audacious in their purple and white presence.
I've actually had stray thoughts about maybe, just maybe, choosing some flowers myself and planting and nurturing them. But every time I do, I feel a case of hives coming on as I remember the misery of hoeing and thinning cantaloupe and corn in the dry summer sun.
So I decide, always, that it's much better to just encourage and support my husband's green thumb. My part of the deal is wholehearted and frequent appreciation of the wonderful results.
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