My Journey to a Love of Gardening

My Journey to a Love of Gardening

My mother did not grow vegetables, but she had the most beautiful flower garden. She knew all of the names of the plants in Latin. She had green thumbs. I did not acquire her talent or desire for gardening, but when I got married...almost 32 years ago...I really wanted to try to grow vegetables.

Each year my husband and I would till and weed and plant, hoping to harvest something. I had fair to good luck...some years...but other years, my brown thumbs were showing and most everything would die. Most every year, by July, it would be so hot and weedy, that I would give up...until the next year when, with hope renewed, we would try again.

I never "loved" gardening, but I did want to grow at least tomatoes. A few years ago, I decided that I was DONE with gardening. We were getting older and I was tired of failing. I asked my husband about trying to garden in containers. I got a few and tried it and...viola!...I grew tomatoes. I didn't even have to weed the garden.

That was eight years ago. My husband started making boxes and expanding our garden. We were truly successful in the garden for the first time..and no weeding. Over three years, we expanded our garden to about 20 boxes. The only trouble was that I was having to water all of the boxes by hand...in Oklahoma and my husband was working in Chicago. I called and asked him if there was an easier way to water all of the boxes because it was a lot more time consuming than I hoped.

He got to thinking about the situation and over a couple of summers, came up with a solution. He invented a watering system that watered all of boxes at once. It was amazing! No weeding AND self-watering. Truly self-watering. I didn't have to do a thing but hook the watering system up to the hose. (you can also use a rain barrel)

We loved this way of gardening so much that we decided that we needed to start a business and share this easier way of gardening with others. That is how Garden Anywhere Box was born. We travel around to fairs and farmers markets to share our easier way of gardening. We love this so much that we have to share. We talk to so many people like us. People who have tried to garden, but gave up or people who have never gardened because they just don't know where to start.

www.gardenanywherebox.com

There are people everywhere who love to garden. They love the process of getting the ground ready, composting and even weeding. I am not one of those people. I do believe that gardening should be as natural as it can be...composting and replenishing the soil, but...if you can't do that, do you do nothing? I say do what you can to grow your own food. Garden Anywhere Box is making gardeners out of people who had given up or had never gardened before.

Like I said, I never loved gardening. I thought that I was a failure. It has only been in the last few years that I have discovered a LOVE of gardening and accepted the fact that I really am a gardener. 

Instead of weeding and watering, I go out every morning before it gets hot, harvest what is ready, visit with the bees, take pictures and come inside.  

Gardening gives me joy. I have found joy in the garden after all these years. It is our mission to share GAB with others and help them find joy in the garden, too. 

It's never too late to garden.

If you have read this far, thank you for taking the time to read about my journey to a love of gardening. It took almost 30 years.

A couple of years ago, I found a quote by Alice Walker. It really touched my heart. "In Search of my Mother's Garden, I Found My Own."

My mother was an amazing gardener, but I never connected with her through gardening. She's been gone 11 years. I wish she was still here so that I could show her that I found "my" green thumbs and share my love of gardening with her.