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Old May 7, 2018   #12
nancyruhl
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Metro Detroit, Michigan
Posts: 1,051
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Nice thread to start. I am always almost giddy at this time of year, but this year especially. It has not been without its weather challenges, though. We went from late deep freezes to spring weather in a couple of days. Nothing could come out of the basement for much longer than usual, then out of the tents for even longer. Throw in an ill timed, but much needed trip to visit to visit family this week, and I am rushing around like a zombie.

What i am particularly thankful this year:
A family has moved into my church in sanctuary. She is severely disabled with Multiple Sclerosis and totally dependent on her husband for her care. He has a deportation order. An appeal in being worked on and it is anyone’s guess where that will go. He is going crazy not being able to leave the church or go to work. I was able to set him up with a container garden on our roof garden. The other day, I found a nice looking fig tree and brought it up to him. He is so excited, it seems like Christmas in May. He goes up daily to count how many of his seeds have sprouted. His enthusiasm is contagious. He is doing a lot of clean up work up there I never quite have enough time to get to, and today he will help me plant the gutter garden. I bought a covering to shade an area from the intense southern exposure years ago, and couldn’t ever quite figure out how to make it work. Now I have a plan. Parts to make a wheelchair ramp are on order so he can take his wife out there. It is making me very happy to be a part of this.

For 10 years I have been begging for an irrigation system for our church grounds, which have fallen into a deplorable state. We had one, but it wasn’t properly maintained. Pretty much everything died as the gardens are surrounded by concrete. It has happened. I have pretty much a blank slate to create some beauty in. Yea, hurray.

We got the fence around our community fixed up so, not only does it look better, but maybe it will keep the deer at bay. It is a beautiful and productive site otherwise, and I am very thankful for it.
Got the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in yesterday.

I am thankful to all the people who try new an inventive ways of growing, thereby inspiring me. I am growing in bags of garden soil for the first year. It will be a fun experiment.

I grew up on a farm with large garden plots. Now I garden in the ground at the community garden and at my cottage. I grown in earth boxes, global buckets, and now in bags of soil here at home. I grown on a gutter garden at church. They are all different types of gardens, but each produces a wonderful array of fresh vegetables, and I am so grateful for that. Next experiment up is an ebb and flow garden.

I am thankful for this wonderful community of gardeners willing to share the information they have gleaned from their growing adventures. I have learned so much and gotten so much inspiration here.

I am thankful my DH who aids and abets me in my gardening adventures. I am thankful he no longer shakes his head and tells me my ideas can’t work, but rather figures out how he can help me make them work.

I am grateful for family, friends and coworkers who have come to realize the how great it is to grow a fresh tasty heirloom tomato, and eagerly await to see what plants I will have available for them to grow this season. It validates what I have a passion for.

I am thankful this growing season has started. Let the games begin.
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