'Tis Better to Give

 

Sometimes I wonder why I garden.  I like the fresh veggies, to be sure.  We cook with the bounty of the harvest each day and night, but I only seem to put up a few pounds each year in the freezer.  This year I think I've realized that I don't garden for me.  I garden to give.

 

I love it when neighbors call up to ask for herbs or veggies.  I love sending the kids down the street to drop off veggie grams and unsuspecting houses.  I  like it when the front office staff, teachers and parents at the school wait patiently for the Monday basket and then the Monday basket becomes the mailroom basket once the school year begins. 

 

So, I'm still considering myself a selfish gardener.  I horde my fair share and get pure and selfish joy out of seeing other people happy.

 

This is one of the first baskets I brought to the front office this summer.  Note the three tomatoes in there.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have been more selfish.  A LOT more selfish.



 

This next is another school basket.  Note the cucumbers.  I didn't get a single viable cucumber last year and this year I've had enough to make two batches of pickles, eat daily, AND give scores away.  Crazy how things work like that, isn't it.

 

This last basket was supposed to be this week's Monday basket for the school....but they are closed for the holiday week.  The kids clamored to have a veggie sale in the front yard, so I let them have at it.  We put up a sign, wrote in chalk on the mailbox and put it on the neighborhood's Facebook page and...

 

 



Thanks to some OVERLY generous neighbors, the kids walked away with about $25 between them.  We get to go to the used book store today.  Maybe....It depends on how things worked out yesterday and how they'll go today regarding that doozie that was dropped on Monday.  Give me one more day and I'll fill you in completely.

The morning comes early.  Sweet gardening dreams.