THE MAD GARDENER

I call this post The Mad Gardener, because that is how I spend all of my free time these days. Not Howard Beal mad as in "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore"! Mad as in obsessed.

When you work indoors all day, there is something truly liberating about running home from work and getting dirty in the garden - I find it akin to meditation. I chop, shovel, hoe, rake, plant, water, whatever needs to be done and love every darn second of it. Even though I didn't grow up on a farm, there were farmers in my family a generation or two back, so perhaps it's something in my blood.

My neighbors frequently comment that I look like a kid playing in a sand box, which I think is very appropriate. I even sometimes refer to my garden as "the sandbox". Let me tell you, there is no more rewarding feeling than having a family meal in August when everything on the table was grown in your home garden. And the flavor of snap beans, tomatoes, peppers, or corn which go directly from the garden to the table can't begin to compare with even the best organic produce from your local market. And the seed cost less than $2.00. I don't figure in my labor, because I love it so much.

Mostly I grow vegetables from early Spring through late Fall and have flower beds surrounding my home as well, so there is always lots on my "to do" list. As if that weren't enough, I've also started a blog called The Big Blog Of Gardening, which you can check out here.

Get dirty today!