Anne Kazmierczak’s story on Mary Ramsay’s garden in today’s Register tells you all you need to know about the satisfactions that come from growing things you can eat.
The Ramsey garden may or may not break even. Certainly it does not if costs calculated include labor at the minimum wage. That’s beside the point.
Mary told Anne she grows marigolds because she’s “got to have a little color in her life.”
Tomatoes glow with one of the most gorgeous reds on nature’s palette. That’s surely one of the reasons Mary pampers her potted plants, then puts up a quart or two when they’re ripe. They taste, good, too. Better because she grew them and canned them herself.
The point is that a garden needn’t be large or make money to give pleasure. Whether gardening is fun or a chore is a matter of attitude, which is why I nominate Mary Ramsey for Green Thumb Gal of 2010 — and if there wasn’t such an award, there is now.
Find a few square feet in your yard, up against the house, back of the garage, beside the front steps. Till it. Mix in a tubful of sand and a bag of peat moss if the soil is too heavy with clay to work easily. Then plant good things in it. Tomatoes, herbs (basil grows well, lights up a salad), green onions, cilantro, rosemary, squash or strawberries if you have that much room. Water it and pull the weeds.
The time in the sun will produce all the vitamin D your body needs. Bending over and standing up again is exercise. Watching the plants grow nourishes appreciation for this chock-full-of-marvels world that we live in.
The harvest can last through the summer, tastes great, makes following recipes easier: the rosemary, or thyme or sage will be just a few steps away, no need to go to the store. And why buy vitamins when you can grow them practically for free?
A final plus: every square foot put into garden is another square foot that needn’t be mowed.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
