#21: My Garden

Reason to be Happy #21:
My Garden

I love my garden. I call it my dirt therapy. When I first bought my house, I knew that at the top of my "must have" list was a backyard with suitable space and sunlight for both flowers and edible plants. When my real estate agent* brought me to this house, I spent about 20 minutes photographing and measuring the backyard before declaring, "I want to buy this." He responded, "Do you want to look inside?"

I did indeed buy the house (and, yes, I looked inside) but because it was June, I spent about 4 days creating garden beds and getting stuff planted before I ever had my furniture delivered! Priorities, right?

These photos show the before and after from almost the exact same view—from starting from scratch with a few lonely looking perennials, to the full glorious abundance today (three years later).

I spend a lot of time in this garden. Gardens can teach us patience, observation, diligence, how to nurture...all good skills for a writer. Waiting for germination is the same on the page as it is in the dirt. And all that pruning and weeding is closely related to editing.

*Need a great real estate agent in the Dayton area? Ed Griffith of Irongate is wonderful. Ed@EdmundGriffith.com