UCGal, you have succeeded admirably in making me feel both hungry and inadequate. However, I’ll get over it (the feeling of inadequacy, anyway), and enthusiastically applaud you. I am soooo impressed!

I don’t like gardening, but I engage in it because I like the results. Last summer, I turned about 200 square feet of concrete-hard rural Virginia pastureland into a perennial garden surrounding the porch of our house there. The ground is so hard that you need a full-size farm tractor to turn the earth and break it up (most of it is solid clay) – a rototiller can’t begin to do the job. Unfortunately, a full-size farm tractor can’t get close enough to the house, so it involved several weeks of really intense labor (sending my bulging spinal discs into full ruptured status), lots of mud, and the likelihood of future skin cancer.

However, I had almost instant gratification. The plants I put in grew and bloomed rapidly, and really made a difference. We can sit on the porch, in view of the Blue Ridge, and watch the visiting butterflies and hummingbirds. The best part is that they all came back this year, much larger than last, and I didn’t have to lift a finger.

Once I’m down there full-time, I hope to expand into vegetable and fruit
gardening. We have decent acreage, so we won’t have to evict the cows. However, if they ever legalize pot, all bets are off. I’m not hopeful that Social Security will be around to help with expenses, so I will have to use my assets wisely.