Gardening

Gail, love your wonderful photo of that produce from your garden.  When you grow it yourself you know it hasn't had chemicals, you chose the varieties you want, and it is very convienent to just go outside and 'shop'.   Also you don't have lots of folks' hands all over your good food.   Beautiful!   I love gardening but I am not alone...it is the most popular leisure activity.   Just read obituaries and you will see just how many people loved their roses, their vegetables, etc.   I suspect my kids will write the same about me.  I found this pumpkin this morning hidden among all that mint that has become a monster.   I plant pumpkins, gourds, etc along a berm that I sort of created.   It is in an area that does not have good topsoil so I began building up the soil in that area a few years ago by sheet composting...some people call it lasagna composting as it has lot of layers.   I think the first I ever read of sheet composting was in a book by Ruth Stout.  She was a 'lazy' gardener and did not till the soil...just composted everything on the ground, pulled it all back and planted each spring.   Her brother Rex Stout was a mystery writer.   I follow many of Ruth Stout's ways except she was known to garden naked and I haven't started doing that yet.