Kids in the Garden

IMG_1346, originally uploaded by kath66.

When we bought our home in 2001 we didn't have kids. The garden was full of roses that were gorgeous, but unbeknownst to me at the time, were kept alive and pest-free with healthy (or not) doses of systemic pesticide delivered through an automatic watering system. When we were moving in and discovered the entire wall of cabinets in the garage full of the 'rose treatments', we suddently realized that the garden was not being kept so healthy with compost applications from the handy bin inthe back corner like we'd thought. It took me a couple of years to nurse the roses into the ground. My attempts to amend the soil with alfalfa produced a thriving aphid farm. But I somehow couldn't take posession of the garden, as if the plants were their before I was and somehow had called dominion. It wasn't until the impending birth of our daughter, and a very delayed house extension (that was staged in the garden) that I finally gave up on the roses and took over the garden for real. I contemplated all the garden could be, and although making the garden a place for my daughter to play was an idea, I could never wholly give it up to her, and told my husband on more than one occassion when the subject of swings came up, that the garden was MINE.

What I have learned in the nearly three years since my daughter was born is that it is truly my garden, but that it is much more enjoyable when I can share it with her.