gardening | sarahscapes

I love it when prompts – like today’s Photo Challenge – suggest something I already wanted to write about!

In addition to the obvious connection between one doting grandmama and her young grandson, I love this photo because it will always remind me of the stellar weekend we had together gardening. I should add, the wilting bouquet clutched in his hand was promptly offered his mother on her return from a late morning run.

He wandered around as I pulled weeds, trowel in hand and pushing it lightly into soil near where I was working. “Gargeh,” he declared. “Yes, we are gardening,” I replied.

We held this same conversation over the surprise squash plants, the runaway raspberry shoots, the proliferation of plant matter sprouting in all the wrong places. And by the time I had filled a wheelbarrow with last year’s stalks, assorted trimmed branches and other garden miscellany, he was ready for a ride – high on the soft pile of green. Down the hill we went to dump the contents beneath him while he watched.

And then the best part of all: our walk around the neighborhood with him facing me, back braced against the far end of the wheelbarrow, banging his fists in time to my gait and yelling “BOOM” every time we hit a small rock that jostled him on the blanket I had placed under him.

For at least two hours we played and explored together. Who could ask for any better partner in the garden?

the happy couple

My son is getting married next Saturday. He’s probably the one who should be taking a few days off. But I’m the one hanging out by the ocean with my two daughters and a close friend.

They assembled five raised garden beds for me – my dream of permanent rhubarb, asparagus and raspberries to complement my husband’s dream fruit orchard now underway. This involved constructing the cedar beds themselves and preparing the ground beneath. How seamlessly each young woman found her niche in this cooperative effort. While I took it easy.

In one spot preparation required evicting a boulder from underground. This is New England, after all. I took it easy, capturing the deed.

Now the sun is getting ready to set, the largest moon about to rise. In a couple of hours’ time, my girls and I shall gather by the water’s edge to take it all in.

Taking it easy.