Roots & Wings

There is only so much space on our little porch for container gardening. So, we’ve been planting and watching seeds grow at Gran’s house. Saturday Scarlet pulled up her first radish!!

I remember gardening when I was growing up in Virginia. My dad and I would get those seed starting kits and put seeds under lights in the basement early on in Spring. When it came time, he would till up the garden and I would bring him sweet tea. I remember running outside with a big glass and putting it in his dirt covered hands. The top side of the garden was marigolds and sunflowers just for me. We filled it up with broccoli, cauliflower, string beans and snap peas, summer squash and cucumbers. I remember the feeling of dirt under my bare feet. I remember how hard I would get scrubbed in the bath every night in the summer time. I remember watching Daddy hoe rows and hand me seeds to plant. These are some of the greatest memories I have of my childhood. 

I know that my little 6 year old mind saved that image in a whole lot larger picture than it actually was. In my mind, it was a HUGE garden, full of yummy food. I would go out and sneak into the snap pea patch and munch down on them. But now I’ve gone back and looked at our old place and it looks like it all shrunk. But I only got bigger.  

It is so special for me to watch her sink her feet into the dirt, plant her first seed, water her flowers, and pull her first radishes. I wonder how big Gran’s little patch of garden will be in her mind twenty years from now.

Seeing life through the eyes of a child again is a beautiful thing.