Gardening... Yes, Gardening- My Biggest Failure Would to Be to Not Try at All.

Let me give you a little history.

My wife and I do NOT have "green thumbs". What we actually have is what we know so affectionately as a "black thumb". This means that instead of growing living things, we are more prone to killing living things. The very fact that our 6 year old boy is, indeed, 6-years-old is a freaking miracle of God.

Our death tally includes: every living thing that has ever been put into our care, with one exception.

So, the idea that I would actually follow through on a lifelong goal of having a garden should, at the very least, give you some investment in the story of it.

A million years ago when we got married, we lived in a tiny, beautiful, lovely town called Knoxville, PA- population 618, when we left, two people moved in... 618. We had a a wonderfully loving grandma, Pauline, who had raised several children. She still cooked for several children and planted a garden for several children. She regularly instructed us to harvest from that garden as often as we could. I was envious at her ability to grow things and feed people- this was during the time that I was learning how to cook, live healthy, exercise, and to teach (I was going to school- again).

Fast-forward a few years. My wife was appointed to a church in Tower City, PA, and we moved into the parsonage where the former pastor had planted a plentiful garden. We harvested tons of tomatoes, green beans, zucchinis, broccoli, etc. The years that followed... well, let's just say, nothing planted, nothing grown. Though I always envied the idea of growing my own food.

Fast forward just a few more years. Now we have moved to Texas and "purchased" our own home. The backyard belongs to "us". So, finally, I decided to try my first attempt at growing my own food- in a drought, with clay-tacular soil (i.e. muck with no real benefit).

I have visited the local nursery- which is what I would suggest to anyone wanting to try this. Local nurseries have insider knowledge of your soil and how to overcome the deficiencies therein... ie. North Texas, nutrition-less clay. I have started to compost and have built a simple, above ground garden 8' x 4' in area. I have used as much organic soil builder stuff as possible. And though I'm not sure how it's all going to turn out, I am loving every minute of it.

I have heard an equal amount of success and failure stories about trying to overcome the frailties of the North Texas climate and have come to one conclusion...

My biggest failure would be to not try at all.

Let's just call that a lesson for life. Have you ever thought to yourself, "gosh, if I would have tried _______, I would know by now whether it was successful!" Welcome to my thought-process.

If we never try, we'll never fail; if we never fail, we'll never succeed.

I believe this to be true, and I just pray that my garden (though I can already see wilted leaves) turns out to be a success- if not, then I guess I'll have learned a lesson for next year's garden. I am committed to make this work.

God Bless You!
Paul