I have a love/hate relationship with plants. Don’t get me wrong, I love plants, flowers, trees, and bushes. Flora beautifies the earth all seasons of the year.

When my dad was stationed in Germany for two years, we always made a trip to the Netherlands in the spring. We visited fields of tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils. They were absolutely gorgeous. When we returned to the states and Dad retired, he had multiple orders of bulbs waiting for him in Utah.

For my part, the first time I planted iris, (from my dad’s flower bed), I nearly killed them all. I found out you don’t fertilize iris with horse manure. I have over-watered philodendron, practically ‘raking’ dead leaves off the floor. Coleus hated me, roses did not thrive. For some strange reason, the only indoor plant that I had success with was African Violets, but that was only during a very cold winter when I couldn’t do anything else.

My green thumb finally began showing when I started emulating my father’s gardening abilities. (Dad once had me take a picture of a potato he had grown next to a Bic pen. The spud could have suited up as a linebacker!)

I decided to garden when we were living in Englewood in McMinn County. The soil was rich and I bought some packages of inexpensive seeds. The okra came up quickly, grew tall, but I didn’t really know what to do with it when it was ripe. Cherry tomatoes, green beans, and corn did surprisingly well, too. I definitely knew what to do with those!
Later, when we bought a house in Athens, I ended up plowing almost a third of the backyard. We also planted a couple of apple trees and some grapes vines. I tried out raspberry canes, too. The first apple tree died before it was a year old. The second tree piddled along for several years, but never bore fruit. The seedless grapes reverted to seeded grapes, but still made wonderful jelly for a decade. The raspberries pleased the birds no end, but usually I was able to pick enough to make a few jars of jelly a year. That was a heavenly feast that kept me trying year after year.

My greatest accomplishment was in the last few years we lived in Athens. I had perfected my cucumber growing technique by then. I created a trellis based on what a Thai friend had built for her ‘crawling’ plants. When the cucumbers were very small, I picked them for my Kosher dill pickle recipe and with a trellis, I didn’t have to bend that much. After I had canned enough, usually by late in the summer, I let them grow overripe, big enough to make sweet cucumber rings for my husband.

I experimented with many things, but my successes turned out to be greater than my failures. I grew spinach, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, onions, peas, potatoes…. One year the only kind of potato starts I could find were blue potatoes. They were very interesting when they were mashed.

Since we moved from that house, I have been unable to grow a garden, but I’ve been lucky enough most years to find produce. This year I put up pumpkin. . . in March! The Halloween pumpkins sat in the garage all winter. I guess I am slowing up a bit, but it’s still fun to preserve what you have grown or been able to acquire.

Susan Kite is the author of five fiction books for young adults. A novelette is going to be included in the anthology, Zorro, the Daring Escapades, and a children’s book, The Legend of Billy Bob Flybottom is scheduled for release in the fall. Check out her books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/bookscape