Why Garden?

I was kinda whining to a non-gardening friend about my gardening pests and poor yields and freakishly early mornings (5:30-8:00am) and such. She just turned to me and asked, "How the heck do you keep doing it? I would have ripped those plants out of the ground long ago!"

Got me thinking a bit.

I gave her the first answer that popped into my head: because I love it. But that's not very specific. What do I love about it?

• I love that the plants already know how to make fruit. I just create a nurturing environment and keep the pests to a manageable level and they do all the real work. I just stand back and marvel.

• I love nurturing something that gives me food. Food is my love language. Food is almost my *only* language. It anchors me to life and people. It's a creative outlet. A way to explore other cultures. Good food shared with friends/family fills my soul.

Those are the easy parts to love. I also love the harder parts...

• Discovering a new problem and working through frustration again and again before reaching some sort of resolution/compromise. Patience and persistence and more patience.

• Learning in layers. There's no way I can read every book and get it perfect the first season. Or the tenth season. I've got to let go of perfection and simply accept progress as my ultimate goal.

Lettuce patch decimated by bunnies. Rhubarb hen-pecked nearly to death. Green beans happy and healthy and productive!