My father grew up on a farm in the mid-west where I think, at one point in his childhood, all the blood in his body was replaced by soil and seeds. I cannot remember a time in my life when he wasn't gardening or planning a garden. Even when we lived in places that had no yards, he would still find a way to plant things.
In an effort to pass this love of growing things on to me, his impressionable child, my dad would allot me a portion of his precious garden space. The catch was that I had to provide the seeds for it. Fortunately, Gurney's (his favorite seed catalogue) provided a solution to my dilemma. At the end of each season, Gurney's mixed up all its leftover vegetable and flower seeds and packaged them. This resulted in a product tailor-made for young children -- The Jumble Packet -- which was quite reasonably priced at one penny.
Of course, using a Jumble Packet was a risky business. One never quite knew what would result from such a planting. Some seeds were pretty easy to identify -- corn, peas, beans, sunflowers. You knew what they were going in, and you could identify them coming up. However, there were always surprises. These were the plants that you just knew were something special, but you had no clue what they were. So you waited and waited and waited and checked on them every day to see what would happen. This was, in essence, the beauty of the humble jumble packet.
Fast forward 30 years, and you will find me typing this entry. If you're looking thoughts on a specific topic, you'll probably want to clear out now. This blog is my new test garden to collect random thoughts, observations, reviews, recipes, craft ideas... who knows where this will go? You might find some sunflowers and peas in here, but you're just as likely to get kohlrabi and bachelor's buttons. If you're still reading, though, stick around -- let's see what comes up! :-)
2 comments:
WAHOO! now it won't feel as if you moved away.
Thanks, Jodi! I think this will be a lot of fun. :-)
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