Denver Direct: Back to my gardening roots

I’ve finally returned to gardening, which was an oppressive burden in the days of my childhood. My Dad always insisted that my older brother and I help with the gardening in the community plots of Greenbelt, Md., about a mile from our house. It seemed an endless, hot, sweaty, boring task, especially because it meant we had to give up swimming that day.

Amazingly, when I visited with my nephew Robert Trumbule who now lives in Greenbelt, I discovered that by chance, he had the same plot as my Dad, some 50+ years later, and was unaware of the coincidence (or maybe he was putting me on).

Now that I have nothing but free time, I must admit I find gardening enjoyable, in a Zen kind of way, and am growing lettuce (too much), radishes, beets, beans, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and spinach. Fits in with future sustainability concept as well. And there’s nothing like a really fresh salad with balsamic vinegar to eat while contemplating the ability of each seed to contain the blueprint for the delicious vegetable that is sustaining you.