Mother's Day Always Reminds Me of Gardening

Here at the Garverzoo Mother's Day always evoke memories and thoughts of gardening.  One year I strayed just a bit and gave Maureen a hammer and pizza scissors.  The main gift was as always, me taking the children and leaving Maureen at home by herself.  So she could garden alone in peace.

I come from a line of mothers that gardened.  Both of my grandmothers, being young marrieds in the Depression, had vegetable  and fruit gardens.  Some of my first memories were going to Grandma Wineman's and eating the fresh berries off the vine.  With Grandma Garver it was the cherry tomatoes and the green beans.     Grandma always had a cellar full of canned vegetables and I can remember her in a gingham apron "snapping" green beans before dinner and me getting to help.

My mother wasn't a vegetable gardener, but her flowers and greenery were always a pleasant sight to behold. The cool summer days spent in the lushness of the backyard that was created by Mom will always be remembered.  Her roses, iris' and azaleas made walking around the house a treat.

With that background it should be no surprise that Maureen and I started gardening just after we were married.  Our first vegetable garden was at the house on Paradise Avenue, carved out of a corner of the back yard.  When we moved to Exeter it wasn't long before we started here.  First flowers, then vegi's.  The first vegetable garden set the tone for much of our gardening here.  We learned that the previous owners like to cover bare ground with rock when they didn't want to grow anything in that place. That first garden involved the process of digging up 4" of sod and then sifting through 5-6" of 3/4" rock to get to soil.  I guess it makes for well drained beds, but each time we expanded our garden, we knew there would be more rock to sift out. After more than 20 years I think we have most of the rock out.  Although we did find a bit more when we removed our last patch of grass this past winter.

So Mother's Day this year?  Spent in the gardens.  Our youngest is going to graduate this year from high school so I don't have to take the children away to have peace.  I did occupy an adult child a bit, but I got some work in return.  It was a day of pruning trees, planting tomatoes and talking to far flung children wishing the two mothers in this house a wonderful day.

The hammer and scissors?  They are garden related also.  The hammer was Maureen's first, to be used and left where ever she wanted.  The pizza scissors make for a wonderful way to cut homemade pizza with fresh tomatoes and cheese.