Monday, February 03, 2025

A promise of produce

Signs of hope: the ice in the creek is breaking up and the mailbox brims with seed catalogs. The other day I asked my oldest grandkid what she was looking at so intently on her computer and she said, "I'm looking for ways to keep cabbage worms off of my cauliflower plants in the garden this summer." 

Well that was unexpected.

Springtime is coming, the time when young girls' thoughts turn to cauliflower--and cabbage and carrots and corn. Later she used graph paper to sketch out all the things she wants to plant in her garden plot, and looking at that sketch made me grateful for the people who have, over the years, planted in my grandkids a love for gardening. 

I think of my husband's grandma stooping over her tomato patch well into her 90s, and I think of my husband's patience in teaching our daughter how far apart to place the seeds and how to distinguish the weeds from the beans. Now, just like her dad, she can make just about anything grow, and all my grandkids look forward to getting their hands dirty in the community garden where they tend their family plot.

The thaw is coming. Soon spring will be here, and the young people will play an essential part in making new things grow.




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