Our condo building must have the most enthusiastic garden committee of any in town and the results are wonderful. It doesn’y hurt that the fourth border to the place is a creek. You can’t buy a better water feature tham a green running one. Every day, some busy person is always planting, pruning, weedig,or watering the numerous patches of flowers and bushes. At the moment they look spectacular and in another month when everything has spread they wil be super spectacular.

I think everyne gets interested when the gardens look so good. There are a number of ground floor apartments where flowers have been planted by individual owners and hanging baskets bloom. And while they are unseen from the borund I hear that many terraces and balconies have most attractive gardens. I have a little vegetaable patch growing on my terrace and am anxiously montoring the yellow flowers that appear daily on my tomatoes.

I was once a keen gardener. When we ownd a house, I also acquired a straggly front garden. It held two peony plants and a forsythia bush. Although I did not inherit the green thumbs of my mother and grandfather I imust have absorbed enough gardening lore ion to be able to work on the front patch and then extend my interest to other parts of the property. Not much grew under the old oak so it became the hosta garden. My sister gave me a clump of her giant plant and it flourished. When we sold the house, several people came with pails and buckets to remove pieces of hosta which I hope are still thriving around town.

Most people on our street did not grow vegetables apart from the odd tomato plant but I began a garden at the back where it got enough sun. An English guy also grew vegetables and he was much more disciplined than I was. My rows were never as tidy as his. I waged war against the armies of rabbits and gave up trying to grow bush beans because they loved eating the tender stalks. My pole beans were surrounded by wire netting until they grew tougher and large enough to discourage the tallest bunny. They grew up teepees of bamboo poles which I joined together at the top to make an informal fence. It made picking beans easier. I grew carrots, spuds, zuchini and other crops. I tried corn only once to the delight of the raccoons. In my separate herb garden , I also grew various kinds of lettuce which made salad making easy. I always enjoyed picking veggies minutes before they were cooked. And of course they were organic as I didn’t use use weed killer.

My flower gardes expanded every year a I dug up a little strip of lawn to make them bigger My husband pointed out I had enough t kee me busy and he was rightt but gardening is addictive and very soothing. There is nothing quite like standing back all grubby and sweaty to admire the garden you have just weeded. And even better to sit in a garden chair with a glass of white wine to enjoy the scene. I had a good friend who came for dinner about once a month and we aways enjjoyed going around the gardens with a glass in to look at the latest blooms and to pick a few tomates for her to take home.

I have ore garden this year than I have had in my cond and we wil see how it goes. Maybe it s too much for me or maybe it is not enough. I will know the answer by fall.