Of Gardens Past and Present

The shot above represents my gardening past and my current gardening efforts. The two pieces of paper are a checklist from the Butterfly Acre Garden club and a letter from my grandmother. On the Checklist, Grandma Puffer checked off that she had a few weeds with a few more weeds appearing. She also checked off the following. Disease Problem, Bug Problem, Rows Straight, Garden Tool Clutter.

The text in the remarks is as follows:

“Bean disease – unsolved. mystery to extention dept. Bug Problems 3 worms on broccoli – 2 cucumber beetles. Fence too handy for hoes. Removing strawberry bed – to many runners. tall skinny kohrabi – set out to close. poor eating.

The letter reads:

Dear Club Members:

I feel very pleased to be made an honorary member of your club. I wish I knew all of you. We would have lots to talk about. Also wish I could see your gardens and you could see mine. It’s always been my hobby; garden keeping is lots more fun than housekeeping. Cooking isn’t so bad. But I guess we can do all three and live thro it.

Thank you again for making me a member.

Just a nut like the rest of you; watch out for squirrels.

Jewell

I treasure these two pieces of paper because they bring back memories of my family getting together with our neighbors around dining room table with a plate of cookies, a mix of tea for the adults and hot chocolate for the kids. Everyone talking about what they wanted to do with their gardens and pouring over the various seed catalogs. Those are some of my fondest memories as a kid.

And here I am, 30 years later, pouring over the seed catalogs and discussing gardening on my Facebook page along with my friends and family who are scattered all over the US. Trading seeds with some. Looking at the things they are sharing, and creating a virtual version of the Butterfly Acres Garden Club.