I love to cook. And I LOVE fresh veggies. But something about a vegetable garden just stresses me out. I can never get the timing right. The tomatoes never come when my basil is doing well. I never have enough ripe strawberries to make strawberry shortcake. Instead of savoring the delicious, fresh flavors, I stress each night trying to figure out how to add one medium sized bell pepper to the menu.
Then last year I was reading the sign out by our community garden plot and my view of gardening changed forever. It simply mentioned that after vegetables and flowers have been harvested, you have to clean up your garden plot for the season. But I stopped reading at the word harvested (don’t worry- by the time Fall rolled around I’d read the whole thing and we left our spot nice and clean). Harvesting flowers?! It sounded so fun and not stressful. I could deal with one bloom, no problem. And a pile of fresh cut flowers would be much easier to give to neighbors than a pile of zucchini. So I tried it. And LOVED it!
This year I got to start early and start some annuals from seed. It’s been so fun! I love having the neighborhood kids stop by and sending them home with a real flower bouquet for their moms. And I love that there is always a fresh arrangement of flowers in our dining room.
I just can’t wait until next year when I know even more and can start even earlier 🙂
