My Upside Down Garden

I once had a beautiful garden. See my pretty tomatoes coming in?

We loved my garden. I loved cooking dinner and turning to Taylor and saying, "Go pick out what vegetable you want."

We planted lots of different kinds of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, lettuce, carrots, okra, and peppers. It was easy....if you stuck it in the ground in Marlin it would grow

We loved the feel of the dirt between our toes and fingers.

It was a family garden.

And then we moved and we now have exactly this much grass in our backyard. Really we love it that way. Most people buy homes with big yards so their kids can run. Not us. We figure that is what they build parks for. It's all about minimizing the work. Taylor can mow the backyard in under 5 minutes. It's great. Obviously, though there is no room for a garden.

Also underneath that thin layer of topsoil our ground looks like this. It's like we live on the moon. I'm not sure I could get anything to grow in that even if I tried. All of this is to say that I am no longer able or willing to have a garden. Usually this doesn't bother me too much. However, around this time every year I really miss my garden. That is why this was such a good birthday present.

Yes...a Topsy Turvy. I love this gift. I love it because I can grow my very own tomatoes on my back porch. I love it because I got my hands dirty in the soil while I was planting it. But I really love it because my dear friend Leia gave it to me. It takes a REAL friend to give another friend a Topsy Turvy. It means that she really knows me and she knows I would love it. I love having friends who really know me and know what I want before I even know it. That is the kind of friend Leia is.

It's been a while since my hands have been good and dirty.

So there it is. What do you think? I'm thinking of expanding if this goes well. They have ones that grow strawberries and I can plant lots of different veggies in the ones I have. I could just line the back porch with them. Another friend told me they look a little like Chinese lanterns so it shouldn't look too tacky with 10 or 15 out there.