My Secret Weapon

I am going to confess a secret: I do not like gardening in any way, shape or form!  I have always felt guilty about this. When other women write on their blogs about their beautiful flower gardens and their bounteous vegetable gardens and how they love the feel of the earth on their hands, I cringe. I hate the feel of the soil on my hands and when it gets underneath my fingernails it actually makes me shiver and I can't wait to get to some water to wash the dirt off. I have often wondered how the same activity can be loved by some people and loathed by others.

As you can imagine, growing up among Mennonites, this is not a popular side of the fence to be on. Mennonite women are renowned for their spectacular and immaculate gardens--both flower and vegetable. While I do not mind the canning and freezing part, the actual planting, weeding and harvesting of the produce, is something I dislike immensely. Of course, I love and enjoy beautiful flowers and look with envy on woman who so easily throw this and that together and come up with a gorgeous display of lovely annuals and perennials that take your breath away. But, it just doesn't come easy for me and I have often despaired over my weedy gardens and lack of flower knowledge.

Over the years I have learned to compensate for my gardening shortcomings. I keep my flower gardens very small, I use gloves to weed so I don't feel the dirt, and I really don't have a vegetable garden. I just plant a couple tomato and pepper plants. I have reduced my flowers to just a few around the side and back of the house. Here is a picture of one that I have this year. (I didn't notice that piece of plastic when I took the picture.) As you can see, it is quite simple and I like it that way.

However, the best thing that ever happened to me was three years ago. That year I was introduced to what I refer to as "my secret weapon." Usually several times throughout the summer, Steve would hook up his big sprayer on the back of the four wheeler and spray weed killer on parts of our property (a catch basin, a drainage ditch) that always grow up with unsightly weeds. As I struggled to pull the weeds from my gardens, I wondered if I could just eliminate the flowers, put mulch down and spray weed killer on it to keep anything from growing. Steve obligingly gave me my own little sprayer and filled a large container with the deadly Roundup and marked it "death by Mom." I was delighted. Now instead of pulling those irritating weeds, I just spray them and in a few days they are dead and unless you look really close you can't see that anything ever grew there. Over the past couple of years, I have eliminated most of my previous flower plots and have just mulched and sprayed them instead. Here is a picture of the fence that goes down our lane that I used to always try to keep lined with flowers.

I imagine that a lot of people look at that picture and think, "what a shame. There should be beautiful flowers the whole length of that fence." But you know what? I am happy. It's as though a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. My family sees the difference and remarks about it. They are always making fond comments about "Mom and her death bottle," and how they see me about the property spraying this and that. The truth is, they love it because I am content. Other years they put up with my complaining and whining about all the weeding I had to do, and how nothing looked nice around the yard and now they have a satisfied mother and wife. You know how the saying goes, "if mom ain't happy, ain't no one happy."

 

I suppose I will always look at other people's lovely flower gardens with a slight tinge of envy. However, I no longer try to keep up. Instead I am satisfied to enjoy the beautiful landscapes that others create and to compliment them on their creativity. I know that God has given me other gifts and talents and instead of being miffed about the green thumb that I wasn't given, I will cheerfully pick up my little spray bottle and head out with my secret weapon that allows me to keep ahead of the never ending battle of weeds.