Twiggybet1's Blog

the first asparagus of the year
Apr 27, 2008 | 5:40 PM PST
Tags: asparagus , hollyhock

Today I picked the first of the asparagus and cooked it with dinner.  The weather has been so nice lately that I have to keep reminding myself that it is still April and there is still a chance of frost for a couple weeks yet.  A lot of my bulb flowers are blooming, and more will bloom soon. So far, I only have a few things planted in the vegetable garden, and I really want to get some more things planted.  (sigh) I am a very impatient gardener.  So much so, that my father-in-law gave me a gardening book titled "The Impatient Gardener". 

 I have always tried to get my daughter interested in gardening.  Both hubby and I enjoy it.  When she was little, she liked to help me pick out flowers and seeds, and she would help me plant.  One year for a special project, she was given one particular flower bed to plant and care for.  She was about 8 or 9 at the time, and she had asked if she could have her "own" garden.  She enthusiastically picked out all kinds of flower seeds, and when I got the annual flowers to plant in the beds, she picked out some for her garden.  She watered her little garden every day (or so) and couldn't wait to see her seeds sprout.  This enthusiam lasted until it was time to weed the garden.  She decided having her own garden wasn't all it was cracked up to be after all.  She has NEVER liked bugs, and really didn't want to play outside when the fishflies were swarming.  (I really couldn't fault her for that, though, they are icky).  Once she got old enough to really be a help to me, it was obvious that gardening just wasn't her thing.  But she doen't mind laundry or cleaning or cooking, so there are quite a few days that she does the straightening and laundry and cooks dinner for me while I get to play in the dirt!   Oh, she loves flowers, and she puts her 2 cents in when I'm deciding what to plant.  Today, while shopping, I couldn't pass the seed packet display (.25 per envelope, I grabbed some lettuces to put in) She spots a package of black hollyhock seeds, and asks me to buy them for the Gothic section of the rain garden.  I asked her if she planned on helping me sow them, and without a word she puts the envelope back in the display.  I got the packet and put it in the cart.  Then, upon returning back home, she notices that some tulips planted on the side of the house have bloomed, and she announces that she is going to get her camera as soon as she gets in the house, so she can take a few pictures of them.  So maybe there is gardening in her future after all!