Zinormous Zucchini

Gardening gives you time to think.  And I’ve enjoyed pondering how my feelings about gardening have changed drastically over the years. One thing I realize I’ve learned to love is sharing homegrown food….  like huge zucs….  with friends.

Now, I actually like to garden.  Yes, I have said it.  Well, I like it more when my back isn’t aching (will this sprain ever heal?), but I love getting dirty, sweat in my eyes, scrapes on my legs, the feel of accomplishment.  If you had asked me the question of “do you like to garden” when I was 8 I would have answered with an emphatic “NO!”

I grew up on a farm, actually several farms.  My family would “maintain” farms that were recently purchased by developers.  It was a win-win situation.  We got cheap rent, a house and acreage; and the developer did not have to pay someone to keep his property in compliance with local weed ordinances or to monitor for vandals.

My father was very good at what he did, he and my mom worked very hard.  We raised corn, soybeans, etc. and boarded heifers for local dairymen.  We also grew produce.

Ahhh, produce – my 8 year old brain thought it was the devil.  Why would anyone WANT to pull weeds, get up at 4:30 AM to pick sweet corn, pick stinky tomatoes – especially when there was a perfectly good book waiting for me in the house?  While my father became well known for his quality local produce, I grew to despise it.  One season I was so angry at all the tomatoes (laying out neatly on the front porch to further ripen), I took sewing pins and pricked many of them.  Needless the say they were anything but saleable.

The late summer brought pumpkin harvest.  I am sorry but anyone who thinks of pumpkin harvest as a beautiful Norman Rockwell painting – have I got news for you!  Have you ever grabbed a beautiful orange pumpkin, only to realize it was rotten on the bottom and have your hand go into 20 pounds of goo?  How about cantaloupe harvest – Dad would pick the all but ripe melons and lob them to me to load in a cart.  He got a kick out of an occasional miss that resulted in “splat” (glad someone did).

As I reached high school, the last farm was nearing development and Dad was ready to move on.  I was thrilled!  I could live in a development, with a small backyard, like my friends!  While I enjoyed the move, it was hard on my family as is any major life change.  So what do I do my senior year of high school, I joined the FFA (go figure).  I took a greenhouse class and the instructor must have seen potential and took me under his wing.

One thing led to another and I wound up with a BS in Landscape Architecture.  Looking back I probably would have switched to Horticulture, but then I wouldn’t get to see my dear husband-to-be in every class!  I tried my hand at vegetable gardening when we first got married – we had land and that’s what you do, right?  I failed.  So we joined a CSA.

Back to my zinormous zucchini – with the birth of my daughter we dropped the CSA membership and started a small garden.  It has grown over the past couple years as my daughter has grown.  It is a playground full of wonders to her as she watches the fruit and vegetables mature.  The first 2 years I lost my zucchini to blight, this year I am swimming in them – and it is so cool.

We are about to start digging potatoes – my toddler will love that, as she has been watching the potato bugs devour the tops of the potato plants.  I guess gardening is best when shared with someone, a notion I have known for several years in ornamental horticulture but I am truly experiencing now.  Gardening is not static and that is what keeps it fun.  So whether you are a beginner or lifelong gardener – share a zinormous zucchini with a friend!