“There is music in the garden among the flowers and the trees, and when our hearts listen closely, we can hear it.” quote by Flavia
My lifelong love of gardens began with Dad’s backyard vegetable garden.
What I remember most about that garden was the compost pile. Dad’s compost pile was nothing but an open loosely stacked heap, slightly taller than the top of my head. I suppose he knew what he was doing because we always had an abundance of rich, dark soil to mix into our existing rows. As Dad turned the pile each night or two, a dozen luscious, juicy earthworms wiggled vigorously, protesting the disturbance amid the newly turned earth. They’d quickly burrow back into their moist, dark haven.
I watched Dad wield the sturdy, long-handled fork with its metal tines and wooden shaft, wishing I was tall enough and strong enough to turn the pile. I wanted to rustle those worms and make them squirm just like Dad did.
He’d come home from the office, quickly change his clothes and work in the garden most nights until sundown. He’d leave the fork stuck straight up in the top of the compost heap, signaling the end of another Michigan summer day.
bemuzin 
Comments on: "G is for Garden" (27)
Lovely post! 😉
Thank you, Lainey! I tolerate worms better than spiders.
I always smile when I see your colorful letters!
Your dad must have been very industrious to turn the pile every day or so. We had one too, but I think my dad turned it no more than once a month. I did love the soft nutritious soil that we ended up with.
Now our town had an ordinance against compost piles. Imagine that!
An ordinance against compost piles?? Good grief!! Perhaps people weren’t using them properly and they attracted critters? Thank you for your compliment on my letters. My first baby-step towards finding the artist in me.
Well this post hits the nail on the head! My brother and I will be spending two weeks planting and seeding my Mom’s numerous garden beds. Its a great workout and most days, I can barely crawl out of bed as my muscles get so sore…LOL
Drink a lot of water; stretch a lot; and ice or heat; and maybe a swig of whiskey morning, noon and night (medicinally, of course).
Oh, that’s sound advice to me! Thank you 😀
My dad grows his own vegetables and has a compost heap, and my mum has flower pots! But I didn’t get the green thumb at all! Something went awry in the genes 😉
Just means you have other talents 🙂
What a lovely story. My mom was the gardener and everything I know, I learned from her. She always had pansies and I never got in trouble pulling off the flowers and drinking the nectar.
Oh you had an understanding Mom! My Mom grew a whole line of daffodils against our fence, and I have never forgotten how much I loved their blooming.
My dad was in a gardener but my mom, more than made up for it with everything from flowers, two vegetables, to decorating her yard with the artist knickknacks that always inspired conversation. Nice post!
Thanks! I like hearing that my blogging buddies had at least one gardening parent, too. I miss the taste of those vegies right out of Dad’s garden!
I love gardening but I always seem to end up with more green than flowers. I think I am going to put down more daylilies. No luck with veggies it seems other things eat them before I do.
I was talking to a friend today and we both said we’ve never had luck with bulbs, which others seem to turn into blooms so effortlessly. Daylilies work well here in the hot Colorado sun – my tiny flowerbed has several.
I’m also fighting the squirrels for the bulbs. So I have to see what else I can put down. Either way I’m looking forward to being outdoor after all the snow
Here’s another thing I recommend – on your Gravatar – put your website address on that page, and consider putting a photo of yourself or something that represents what your blog is about. Right now you’re using a generic avatar, which is fine, but people want to know something about you. Currently if someone clicks on your icon (avatar), they are directed to your Gravatar page, but they don’t have a way to click from there to your blog. I hope that makes sense. I’m new to all this, but followed those recommendations from others.
When you visit sites, click on their Gravatars or “About Me” pages and get ideas for how much people tell about themselves and their interests.
Makes sense. Will have a go at that whole gravatar again. At least the website address.
That’s the stuff I don’t like sbout blogging – i judt want to write, not do all that website and computer msintenance stuff 🙂 if I could afford it, I’d hire a studly young geek to do it for me. Ha!
I hear you. 🙂 Have a good night.
Sorry – meant to put that comment on my F page to you with our other comments about getting more readers!
My mother was an avid gardener and got my father into it after he retired. So much work! Looks like it skipped a generation though, Just not my area of interest, although I do try to maintain a nice looking property.
🙂 thanks for visiting!
Love the compost heap and fork! I think my love of gardening comes from my dad too. He used to be always digging in the garden when I was a child and gave me a patch of earth to sow my own seeds in – cornflowers! I don’t ever remember my mother in the garden unless she was sitting in a deck chair reading a book! My daughter loves gardening too, but no signs of it in my sons, yet.
Jude xx
Thanks for your comments. Did seeds with grandkids last year and they both enjoyed eventually yielding a couple tiny pea pods from small plot. Not everyone takes to digging in the dirt. Mom says I played with earthworms often as a kid!
My Dad did the same. I remember him having two large long compost piles. One for fresh compost while the other was being turned. When the one was full the other was used and restarted or something like that. Me, I have a compost bin that doesn’t really work these days and a wormery which is great. The rest goes to the local council to create compost though they’re about to charge us so I might get my own compost bins going again.
A wormery! I would have loved that as a kid; Mom tells me I was quite a worm aficionado at age 4.