'Flowery Fresh'

Today, I was lucky enough to have a kind of DeJa Vu experience when I met a friend (you know who you are) at her home and was confronted with the best vegetable garden I had seen in a long time. Clearly it had a bit of growing to do but it made me think about how my grandparents and my parents had veggie gardens in their backyards. Or if they weren't growing anything in particular they would grow flowers of all colours and shapes; they even combined flowers with the vegetables.

Just at the moment I found myself telling my friend about a combination of flowers with veges to deter certain bugs including snails. I cannot believe I remembered that tiny bit of information that I am sure my mother or grandmother had told me. I was astounded to think that even though I am not much of a gardener, I would be able to, maybe in a future life, grow something as delicious as tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot and corn as my gardening friend was doing.

This experience got me thinking about our somewhat lost art of backyard veggie gardening and not to mention the very indulgent yet barely visible flower gardens. I think the only thing we are growing now is our population and an example of its impact is the smaller blocks being sold. The days are gone where a twelve square home sat in the middle of an acre block, surrounded by gardens full of flowers and of course the amazing vegetable garden out the back that took up more than half of the yard. I don't know about you but I miss being able to crouch down in the garden bed and feast on pea pods and rhubarb sticks. I can almost see myself now, digging in the manure fertilised dirt to drag out a beautifully formed carrot to chomp on.

What happened? Did we trade our homegrown lifestyle for enormous boxed existences that keep us indoors and the outdoors 'out'?  I don't know about you, but I kind of regret that we have forgotten what it was like to sit in a garden at six-years-old and eat the fruits of our homely labour. Where the grass once stood and the flowers once fluttered in the breeze stands pockets of stone monuments that resemble the homes that shadow them. I am guilty of being one of those people, one who has traded a family existence for a convenient existence. Where we once spent our weekends harvesting our veggies, we now spend the majority of our time in front of the 'idiot box' (as my Dad used to say).

I was completely envious of my friends beautiful garden and for just a small moment felt like that six-year-old little girl who loved nothing better than to eat a whole tomato just like an apple straight off the bush.

A small message to my friend; keep the memories alive (if only for those of us who cannot) and always remember what it was like when you were a child sitting in dirt and eating beans!

"Flowers are the hieroglyphics of angels"- Lydia M. Child