When I "grow up" and have my own house, I want a garden almost as much as I want an amazing kitchen (and if you know me, I really want a sweet kitchen). In fact, ideally, my huge kitchen window would overlook my vegetable and flower garden, and I could open my window every morning and get a whiff of my wisteria, acacia, or lavender. Talk about perfection.
When reading this though, it brought to mind the importance of planting what will grow in the area in which you live, especially when considering the watering patterns of the plants. While many people would probably love to have a lush, rich, colorful garden, it may not be possible for that dream garden, depending on your geographical climate. They talked about the benefits of native plants, and how, when your imported plants will die if a fluke winter or summer happens, native plants will fare better.
I think it's becoming more popular to grow one's own fruits and vegetables, especially with the movement of natural and organic foods. But what impressed me most about this group of gardeners though, is the passion they had for gardening --planting and interacting with the ground at their homes. I liked what the story quoted author Vita Sackville-West writing that said, "The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before". I think that is true. When my family had a garden, every year we looked forward to adding something we didn't have last year. Our perennial flower gardens expanded and filled-in, and our vegetable garden was filled with new and different produce each year. I think that's the joy and intertwined challenge of gardening.
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