Get Your Grill On

April is National Gardening Month. The National Gardening Associations motto is, “When you garden, you GROW”. This statement is so true in my life. You can just feel it in the air. Spring is the time to get your summer vegetable and flower garden started. There are a lot of chores to be done. The weeds need to be pulled. The soil needs to be turned and amended with manure. Decisions need to made. What should I grow? Will I be totally organic this year?

To plant a seed and nurture it from infancy to when it flowers is the miracle of life. One can not explain the satisfaction of eating a meal that you have created from the earth. It takes some work to start and maintain a garden. I find it relaxing and soothing. I did not always feel this way.

Mexican Fertilizer

My first experience with gardening was quiet by accident! I was a teenager living with my parents, upstairs, overlooking the backyard garden. It was the ‘Party 70’s’.’ Cheech and Chong’ were our”Role Models and Heroes”. Smoking was very” Kool and Hip” according to them. The ‘Smoke of the Day’, had a by product of “Stems and Seeds That You Don’t Need”. I had an idea of recycling then. It was to throw the waste out my window.Litlle did I know the consequences!

My father went to the “ ‘Navelet’ gardening center downtown”. Apparently there was a bunch of plants growing below my window that he could not identify. He had brought them some samples of the plants,. He returned: “’Paul’, I need to talk to you!” I did not have a clue what he wanted. My dad looked pretty serious! What did he want? My father replied, with a very disssapointing tone,” I just got back from ‘Navelets’, they told me the sample from underneath your window was cannabis.” My mouth dropped, and before I could reply, my father said,” It must be that Mexican Fertilizer”

My Father was a Gardner by trade. ”World War II “came around and he served. He returned, married, and had two children. He had a career at the Post Office; He still made time to tend his garden. Flowers were his specialty. There was a lot of pride grown in his garden.. Being a juvenile, I was an unwilling participant in the mowing and cleanup of my father’s garden.

The experiences I had with my father made an impression. I am now experiencing joy in the garden. I did get to share my garden with my father in his later days. He would love the flowers and produce I would bring him. The majority of the plants I grew were from seed, and some were heirloom. He was now gardening through me. It was a time that we were together.

I went to Berkeley to buy a Haas Avocado tree. I knew my dad was in the hospital. When I returned, there was a phone call from the chaplain. I did not know how to deal with the sorrow, so I planted the tree. I named the tree “Dad”.

“Dad” I won’t be using any of that Mexican Fertilizer.

Go out and plant something. It is National Gardening Month, so take advantage of it. You will be rewarded!!!