Green Things.

When I was growing up, my parents always had the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood. They had this meticulously-trimmed St. Augustine grass (which was cranky and prone to this type of bug called a Chinch Bug, and needed tons of Sulfate of Ammonia and water--even during drought). They had a huge bougainvillea with tons of magenta flowers, and some natal plum bushes in three perfectly square shrubs lining the driveway. In the back, they had rows of roses were pruned at just the right time, yielding fragrant bouquets all spring and summer. Unlike many of the nouveau riche springing up around us, my parents didn't rely on underpaid migrant gardeners to do their landscaping. They did it temselves, and were out there hours every week

I thought they were crazy.

I couldn't believe the amount of time these two spent being yard-proud. Through heat waves and mosquito infestations, sunburns and randy teenaged boys whooping out of their car windows at my mother in her bathing suit, pushing the mower, my parents tended to that yard as if their lives depended upon it. Frankly, I didn't get it at all.

So, I'm surprised to report that I've lived a lot of places as an adult, hoping with each one that it'd be permanent, by the way. And as a consequence, I have planted gardens at each place. Bulbs that would come back year after year, perennials that would also, and splashy annuals that added flash while the the others came up. And, without exception, we had to move again before I got to see how well these gardens took. But with each one, I found the whole process more and more addictive.

So, the irony is that after years spent trying to avoid yard work, I'm now calling my parents frequently, asking them when to prune this, how to eradicate that and what grows where. I even have a gardening site bookmarked on my browser and (gasp!) gardening books. Nobody who had known me during my childhood would have ever guessed on this outcome on a bet.

Which just goes to show, people can change at any age, so don't get too set in your impressions of them.