Growing My Green Thumb

 Hi! I'm Carley, the Overwhelmed Genealogist.  While developing my family tree is super rewarding, I had the seeds planted for family history AND gardening in my childhood. While Mom taught me how to fill out a family group sheet, she also made efforts in the family garden.

Once, I remember picking cherry tomatoes off a bush outside the front door of our Rialto, California home. I didn't realize at the time that my mom planted it for harvest. I'm not even sure that I realized they were tomatoes! But I remember sneaking (or I thought I was sneaking) yummy, red fruit off the plant and eating it. Thus, my love of tomatoes began. 

My Grandma and Grandpa Tanner always had a fantastic garden at their Idaho home. Every year they grew a garden. I remember picking peas and pulling carrots out of the ground and eating them fresh out of the garden. It was fantastic!

In our home garden in Lake Los Angeles, California my mom would watch "Victory Garden" on PBS. Then she learned of Square foot Gardening, and attempted one. Mom had a lot of health issues and so it didn't stay long. I would go outside, swing on the swings, and look at the empty garden area. When I went in the garage I would see all the gardening supplies sitting there. Gardening would enter my thoughts often.

One day, I think I asked my mother, I decided to start fussing with the gardening supplies. I am not sure what I chose to plant, but I had some success.  Occasionally I would enlist the help of the neighbor kids. There were successes and failures, but I tried. I do remember planting radishes and having success. It turns out that was a pleasant surprise to my mother.

One day I was all excited with having grown a large radish in my little garden. Radishes weren't my favorite, but dang it, I grew it! It was the most fantastic radish to me! That is when I learned that my mother loved radishes! She was so delighted that I had grown it. She thoroughly enjoyed the radishes that I provided for her.

Other than that, the rest of my experience was yardwork. No one loves weeding, but there were plenty of weeds in Lake Los Angeles.  I hated to weed, but I loved flowers!

Mom bought plenty of flowers. She would get marigolds, zinnias, mini roses, irises, snapdragons (my childhood favorite), and several others. I loved to watch them bloom and bring in bouquets for Mom.

We also had a lilac bush that my sister bought for my mom on Mother's day. I love the sweet, fragrant smell of the purple lilac flowers. They brought much enjoyment to our family for years. 

As time went on and into my married life,I became ill with pneumonia. As I rested and recovered, YouTube and smartphones became more popular. I scrolled and watched many videos about the International Space station. Then I found a video about gardening. It became my favorite YouTube channel, Calikim29.  Soon the spark of gardening began and my efforts started in gardening again.  I had more success than ever before! I was finally convinced that I had a green thumb!

We moved shortly after that. As I started to get more gardening done, more health issues surfaced, so that slowed me down. We learned we were being moved by my husband's employer, and more life challenges ensued, including the pandemic.

Now that we are moved and some challenges are settling down,  I  am ready to build on the gardening foundation I have developed. Besides, in these days you can never be too prepared!