Gardening with My Husband

Flower gardens can be a lot of fun to create and make a big difference in the look of your property. But what if you don't have a green thumb?

I was strolling through the garden department, waiting for my husband to checkout. "Hey," he said, meeting me at the seed display, "You ready?"

"Look at all the nice vegetable seeds, honey," I said, taking a pack from the rack."

"Don't tell me you're thinking about planting those things, Margaret. Neither one of us has a green thumb."

"But planting seeds is a Christian thing. Jesus was always talking about planting seeds."

"He was referring to spiritual seeds, Maragret, not pole beans."

"Here's some flower seeds, Frank. Wouldn't they look good around the house?"

"Come on, Margaret. We've done a real good job on the lawn, but neither of us knows anything about plants and flowers. All we'll end up doing is tearing up the yard."

Putting the pack of seeds back in the rack with a sigh, I followed him to the exit, passing a display of small flowers. "Wait, Frank. Look at these. All we'd have to do is take them out of the cups and put them in the ground."

He paused, glancing around at them. "I like those purple ones."

"Look at these yellow ones," I said, lifting the little yellow flowers. "They would look nice alongside the house."

"They're kinda plain looking to me."

"Well I think those purple ones are too loud."

"Excuse me," the clerk said, "The purple flowers would border those yellow ones nicely."

Frank and I turned to each other with a vacant stare, hesitating, and then we exchanged grins. "I'll plant the yellow ones," I said.

"Okay," Frank said with a light chuckle. "I'll plant the purple ones."

It was breaking day when we cleaned up the breakfast dishes and went outside to work on our garden. Early morning fog hovered around the oak trees as we made our way around the house. "Okay," Frank said, handing me a shovel, "I'll start on this end and you start at the other. 'Course, I'll probably be halfway over before you even get started good."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Nope. It's just a plain fact."

"We'll just see about that," I said, nudging him playfully, pushing the shovel into the ground, hitting something hard. "What in the world . . . ?"

Frank tapped the end of his shovel into the ground. "Roots," he said with a deep sigh. "They're coming from the trees."

"What are we gonna do?"

He leaned the shovel against the house. "Let me see if Carl's got an ax we can borrow."

It wasn't long before he came back around the fence, carrying an ax. I'd never seen him use an ax before and asked, "Are you sure you know how to use that thing?"

"Don't be silly, Margaret. Of course I know how to use it." He lifted the ax and brought it down on the roots, but the more he chopped the more roots he exposed. "This ain't gonna work," he said, leaning on the ax.

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said, Margaret. Those flowers won't grow here. There's roots running all over the place."

"Well what are we gonna do?"

"I have no idea. Let's just go get our money back."

"Other people have trees in their yard and they have flowers."

"Not close to the trees. We got trees on both sides of the house."

"Having a problem?" Carl called over the fence. "Did the ax help?"

"There's too many roots," Frank said, draping his arm across my shoulder. "We're just gonna take all this stuff back and get a refund."

"Why did you want to plant them on the side of the house?" Carl asked, coming around the fence. "Why not plant them around front?"

Frank looked down at me. "You really want to take a chance digging up the front lawn, honey?"

"I don't know. What do you think?"

"We worked a long time to get that lawn in shape."

"Yeah," I said, lowering my eyes in disappointment. "I know."

"You don't have to dig up the yard," Carl said. "Build a flower box."

"That's a good idea, Frank," I said with renewed enthusiasm. "These would look good in the-"

"It would still be on the grass, Margarete."

"Oh, yeah. Well . . . alright. Let's take it all back then I guess."

Frank laughed softly. "You really want these flowers, don't you?"

"Yeah, but I'm with you about the front lawn. I don't want to-"

"Why not?" he said with a grin, putting his arms around me. "It's just grass."

Carl helped us carry everything around to the front, saying he had to take his wife shopping. Frank and I decided not to build the flower box and just broke the ground. Neither of us had ever been good at gardening, but we had a great time laughing and working together.

It was late afternoon when we finished planting and had everything cleaned up. Standing arm in arm, we admired our purple and yellow flower garden. "It's beautiful, Frank."

"Yeah, we did a good job, even if I do say so myself. Maybe we'll tackle a vegetable garden this spring."

"Okay, but no mustard."

"Mustard?"

"Jesus said that when you plant a mustard seed, it spreads all over the place."

"Oh good grief," he said with a laugh.

"Stepping away, I looked him over. "You're a mess!"

He looked me up and down with a smile. "You're startin' to look an ole wash woman yourself there, kiddo."

That was five years ago. We have several plants and flowers growing around the house and the lawn is still beautiful. We enjoy working in the yard and have developed quite a bit of knowledge about gardening.

The plants and flowers make a big difference in the appearance of our property and we even had a neighbor ask us how he could make his yard look as nice as ours.

Gardening to us is productive exercise, and we learned quickly that it's not brain surgery. Most garden shops are eager to give you tips and information on how to plant and care for your flowers, shrubs and plants. Try gardening for yourself. It can be very rewarding.

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