Now, anyone who starts up a conversation with me will quickly find out that I love to garden. My Wonderful Husband, friends and co-workers have had to listen patiently to me rattle on about my gardens and plants much more than they would like, I’m sure.

CP, my friend and co-worker, a lovely young woman, had just moved into a new house – a “fixer-upper”, but it had potential. Having been ignored for several months, the yard needed attention – LOTS of attention. CP, who knew very little about plants, asked me if I could come over and give her some gardening advice and suggest plants. That’s like asking a vampire to visit a blood bank! Of course, I agreed.

The Plan

We arranged to meet the following Saturday morning. I arrived with my trailer hitched to the rear of my Subaru Outback, loaded with shovels, trowels, rakes, etc., armed to the teeth and loaded for bear.

Because it’s getting toward late summer, because she’s renting the house and because she’s pretty busy with other things (like a job and a boyfriend), I encouraged her to start small; use containers and keep it simple.

Nearby, there are several big box stores that I knew would have what we needed: containers, plants (of course), potting soil, fertilizer, and mulch.

We found some very nice pots on sale; she picked ceramic pots glazed turquoise or lime green to set on her front door steps. After about an hour of selecting plants in the hot sun, I had to go get a second shopping cart. CP was like a kid at Christmas: “OOH! Look at that one! Oh! Look at this one! Oh, what beautiful colors! I want that one, will that one work?”

I had to grin at her and I knew exactly how she felt. That excited, almost giddy feeling of gazing upon a sea of gorgeous plants and knowing they could be yours! Yours to grow and water and weed and watch bloom and be happy about! Anyone can be a gardener, really.

Action!

The back of my Subaru looked like an overgrown jungle with all her plants and the trailer was loaded with five bags each of potting soil and mulch. After lunch, washed down with Jumbo Margaritas, we returned to her house and unloaded her treasures.

After I had ceremoniously presented a small gift of gardening gloves to her, we commenced. We potted plants and potted plants and then had plants left over. So CP started hand digging a small bed beside her front steps and we added some leftover potting soil to improve what was already there. CP was ecstatic every time she found a root or a bug and was soon dripping sweat and covered head to toe with soil, twigs, and pieces of mulch. The mark of a true gardener.

I had to leave before the project was completely finished. But the following Monday, all CP could talk about was….you guessed it: “My yard looks so pretty! I never, ever realized how much I would enjoy gardening! I love getting my hands in the soil! And the scent of the soil! I’m talking to my plants! I NEED MORE SPACE!”

I laughed out loud – I had created a gardener!