So when did I become a gardenfreak?

Jeff and I spent most of Sunday doing gardeningstuff. I remember helping my parents with gardening chores as a child. It was interesting for, oh, maybe 30 seconds and then I'd rather go off and do my own thing. Unless it was MY plant, of course.



I clearly remember planting a corn seed and actually having it survive (I guess there weren't racoons in our neighbourhood yet) long enough for me to pick a ripened cob of corn. My mother cooked it for me and I slathered it in butter before taking a bite. It was the best thing I had ever tasted.



I can't help but contrast my attitude about gardening now to ten years ago. My eyes used to glaze over whenever people started talking about gardening. Now I'm one of those garden-freaks who gets all excited when someone mentions mulching or fertilizing, and who posts an endless stream of boring plant and garden photos to Flickr.

How on earth did that happen?



Even when we had a condo, I had no interest in gardening. Not that we could do much gardening, but I wasn't even interested in trying to grow some container herbs in our sunny window. Since we bought a house, however, it's as if some switch in my brain has been pulled. It didn't hurt that our house came with a beautiful garden of perennials.



I love the garden in the spring. Every day, there's something new: a flower that wasn't there before, a new sprout, more leaves. I've gotten into the habit of eating my lunch on the back deck if it's nice weather.



Jeff and I went to a gardening centre on the weekend and picked up some new plants including some clematis (Jackmanii and Madame Julia Correvon), hanging plants for the back deck (purple verbena), a small cedar tree, and herbs.

In addition to planting some in pots outdoors, I've also expanding my indoor herb garden in the sunroom:



Herbs so far include sweet basil (store-bought plants as well as lots grown from seed -- I loooove basil), regular sage, purple sage, English lavender, Oreuk(sp? must go check later) lavender, lemon basil, lemon thyme, regular thyme, CHOCOLATE mint (!), rosemary, parsley grown from seed, French tarragon, and Greek oregano.

Plus I have some more coming from Richters soon, woohoo!

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