This is on my mind...

Inspired by Rhonda from Down to Earths blog (link at right) here's my contribution to todays "This is on my mind..."


For all the long term gardeners out there, this may not look terribly impressive, but looking at this image brings tears of pride to my eyes.

Growing up we never really grew much in the way of crops, not even many flowers for that matter, even though my family had been involved in the fresh produce market. So when I started my first garden just over three years ago now, I really struggled with how to go about it and had to do lots of research and investigation to get it right. Three years later I'm still learning, having some failures, some successes.
The reason these vegies delight me so much is they've been grown by my neice and nephews who are under 10 years old.
When I discovered the joy of success from my first little garden, I was hooked for life. From small beginnings I've come a long way. Along the way I've tried to share that joy with my family and I'd like to believe it's rubbing off on them. My sister's family has spent many weekends being dragged around my garden as I show them seedlings taking shape and pick what is available. They were keen to start their own garden and put their first one in at Christmas. Above is some of the results from that small garden.
My mother and father encouraged me as I struggled at the start, praising every small bunch of herbs or cluster of tomatoes I managed to pick to share. My mother now has a fabulous small garden that's producing well. We share walks in it with my youngest niece and now my brother is thinking of putting in a small vegetable garden for her as she talks about "Nana's garden" all the time. It reminds me just how important it is that we share not just book learned knowledge, but our passion for the practical down the generations.

First lettuce. Before this he didn't even eat it. On this day he picked a leaf and gobbled it down!

Looking for strawberries at Nana's

Picking tomatoes from Nana's garden ( if you look closely you'll see that these are a "plant", bought in especially so she could find them as it's a little too early for ripe ones yet)

Showing me seedlings they've struck in their special little grow bed

The kids enjoying the pleasure of my garden, especially the chooks