What is to Love

Have you ever wondered why some folks are famous authors and others just don't seem to have the drive it takes to achieve? This a.m. as I was outside working in the garden I decided why I do not write but garden instead.

Some folks just get joy from smaller spots in life. I think that I should have been a professional gardener. I am always happy when I am tinkering around with plants. Yes, I would rather be gardening. I think a few of my ancestors have given me the gardening gene.

My Grandmother Smith, a 40-year plus classroom teacher, also loved being outdoors in the summer. She loved flowers and every year she had a flower garden at the front of the house. She always received compliments on how beautiful everything looked. My growing up years, we always had a vegetable garden. My Aunt Renee, who at that time lived in an apartment, and my grandmother planted all sorts of vegetables behind our home on Carbon Avenue in Price. Then, even though our cooking was done on a coal stove, the canned everything that they grew that could be canned. Potatoes, onions and carrots were stored in the fall, as were the pumpkins and squashes. They were dedicated to gardening. Those were the days when everyone had a Victory Garden.

According to Wikipedia: "Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens become a part of daily life on the home front."

My Grandfather Tom Pitts was a farmer. He wasn't the most successful farmer I knew but he always had vegetables from his garden, fruit from his own trees, eggs from his chickens, milk from his cows, and raised beef and pork. He was, of course, more successful at the trucking and construction work he did. He was more of a hobbiest farmer but the milk that Grandma Ruth sold was, of course, a nice benefit to the family.

Historically, of course, I come from a long line of farm folk. My English ancestors, on the Smith side of the family, were landowners who ran a farm in England. The Danes were also people who farmed. Several ancestors came to America early to Jamestown and with the Mayflower. There were those who fought in the American Revolution. One was a landowner in Virginia. That family ended up being divided in loyalties because one was converted to the LDS church. They ended up on opposite sides during the Civil War but remained loving brothers.

The upshot of all of this information, of course, is that I seem to have enjoyed a love of gardening that I seem to have come by naturally.