In the Beginning... there were weeds

Lately I've been kicking myself for not taking any "before" pictures of my garden just so I could place them next to all the "after" pictures like they do in those Weight Watchers commercials. That being said, I guess I'll have to rely on that descriptive writing ability I learned in all those high school English classes.  Basically, the garden was a 600 square space filled with partially dead grass, some extremely old rose bushes, overgrown bouganvilla and camelia bushes, and a ton of weeds.  Weeds as far as the eye could see.  It was so bad I didn't even want to spend time in my backyard, not even when it was just too damn hot to be inside our un-air conditioned bungalow.  The thought of doing something about the garden disaster was just too overwhelming and, truthfully, I didn't have a great motivation for taking on such a monstrous project.  And then, thanks to a dear friend's impending nuptials and a promised bridal shower... I was faced with having to get my "it would look better outside of a trailer home" backyard ready to party in 8 months.  So, like any smart Jewish girl... I enlisted the help of my Mother.

I knew there was no way I could do it myself, and I didn't even know how to start!  Thankfully, Mom was thrilled to be put to work.  I don't think that she realized at the time just how hard she would end up working.   

Now, I've spent my entire adult life living in cities.  Oh sure, I grew plants and herbs on the fire escape of my New York formerly-a-tenement apartment and I grew the requisite potted cactus plant on the patio of my hideously ugly Los Angeles apartment building, but I had never conquered an entire GARDEN!  Or grown anything from seed for that matter.  So this is not something that I've ever done before.  In fact, I had never even purchased a seed packet until my Mother started throwing them in the basket while proclaiming they were "less expensive than color spots!"  And so the journey began.

Seven months later, I now have a garden that I want to spend time in.  The grass is green, the roses are rehabbed, and I have flowers galore.  I'm even growing vegetables!  Yes, somewhere in the middle of it all my Mother convinced me to "go green" and grow my own vegetables.  I don't think it was her intention to turn our garden into a backyard produce stand (she said it would be "so much fun!" to grow vegetables) but she did, and I'm glad I let her talk me into all those little veggie seed packets.  Even my born and raised in New York City husband is excited to pick zucchini from the backyard!

Yes, gardening is hard work and it can be frustrating when plants die, or seeds don't come up or the cat craps on the lawn, but ultimately I find it to be a really great counterpoint to the craziness that is life in a fast-paced urban environment.

I think the best advice I've ever heard that applies to both my garden and my life comes courtesy of a family friend: "If the grass looks greener on the other side... you might want to fertilize".