Sharing The Garden's Bounty
 (Read 500+ times)
By Glory Lennon
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The most fantastic thing about having a garden is sharing it. My neighbors get to see it in bloom and that’s a sort of sharing. I often hand over a few choice tomatoes over the fence. That’s sharing too. The birds come to nibble on this seed head and the bees buzz around that flower. The humming birds zip from flower to flower and at times come fluttering in my face, just as a thank you, I’m guessing. That is sharing my garden as well. But then there’s the actual sharing of the components of said garden. Ah, but that’s the true sharing and the most rewarding part of it.
If it wasn’t for the natural inclination of gardeners to share, my garden wouldn’t be half what it is today. Come take a stroll through the garden and see what I mean. See these Iris? My friend Wendy gave them to me. Those Sedum Autumn Joy I got from an old Avon customer back when I sold the stuff. The Lilac “Alba” came from my son’s soccer couch. The patch of daylily was given to me by Geri the mail lady who used to deliver my mail right to my door just for the chance to look around my yard for a few minutes while making her rounds. I got lemon balm from my autistic son’s speech therapist, hollyhock seeds from a neighbor, Canna tubers from the grandmother of my other son’s best friend, Hosta Variegata Marginata from my mom, Sundrops from my daughter’s girl scout troop leader, spearmint from my uncle and a clipping of a rare Cuban oregano from my dearest friend Evey. I could keep going but I think you see what I mean.
Sharing is what we gardeners do. We can’t help it. If we have something we love to grow we will invariably want others to get the same pleasure in having it too. The garden makes it so easy to share. The plants grow and to keep them healthy we have to divide them. Well, there you go! What better time to share? I’ve given away almost as much as I’ve got growing and I will continue to do so. Like I said, it’s what we gardeners do.
So, how can you share your bounty or if you don’t even have a garden yet how do you get others to share with you? Easier than falling off a log. Flattery goes a long way. Just go into a friend’s yard and admire it, vocally.
“Gosh, that’s the prettiest flower I’ve ever seen. Must be hard to grow. Tell me all about it. What’s it called? How do you grow it? Where do you think I can buy one?” you say. If your friend is any sort of good garden buddy she will scoff at the notion of you paying good money to buy it. She’ll grab a shovel and dig you a piece right then and there. I do this all the time. In the garden is the one place I’m not shy about what I want. Hence why I have such a garden.
In turn I will drop everything when a friend says “Do you remember that plant you gave me last year? Got any more you can spare?” I’m out in my garden before she’s done asking and to her house within fifteen minutes to watch her plant the Rudbeckia in her flower bed. She then hands me a fistful of Gaillardia seeds and a piece of her Centurea Montana. Yeah, Baby, life is good! In gardening it’s just as good to give as receive or maybe it amounts to the same thing? Yeah, that must be it.
Once you have a well-established garden you too can share to your heart’s content. Collecting seeds and trading them is one of the greatest ways to make garden friends and influence others. Why would you want to influence others? Well, if you get them hooked on gardening they’re bound to get a rare and unusual plant one day which you will admire, vocally, and there you go! It’s a wonderful cycle, isn’t it ? Trading seeds and plants is something you can do just among your acquaintances or you can include the cyber-world. There are online sites devoted to free organic seed swapping. Go to National Gardening Seed Swap at http://www.garden.org/seedswap/ and post a specific request or look for something to entice you. It’s fun and will, no doubt, gain you a slew of garden buddies.
So, go on and share your garden bounty. You get so much more than you give when you do. Remember, with the plants and seeds come friends and no garden is complete without friends.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 visit http://www.helium.com/user/32782 for more amazing garden info, entertaining short stories and intriguing Novel excerpts.
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