One of my favorite things about going home to my parents' house is their garden. Growing up, my parents always complained how veggies from the grocery stores were just not as tasty as home grown veggies. I listened to them, only half believing. At that time, we lived in some apartments near the university where my dad received a PhD in paleontology. Over the years of my childhood, we would move twice, each time to a larger apartment within a block or so of the previous one. Back then, my parents talked about good fresh food often and as a family we dreamed of having a back yard.
My dad called having a small piece of land for a veggie garden his American Dream. That was all he asked for: a piece of land to grow his food and enough room to make home made sausages and dried meats. I'm glad he got that after so many years of living in a crammed apartment -- mostly for my sake.
When I'm home, I like to look though the breakfast area windows at the garden. I like how I can see the tool shed where my parents put the pork to chill overnight before we make the sausages. I like focusing my eyes on the screen and taking in the blur of colors from the garden. Sometimes I would think about rain hitting those windows. I insisted we get window seats so I could sit and read on rainy days.
One of my favorite things about the garden is the food. My parents grow lots of delicious asian things. For example, winter melon -- named for the prickly fuzz that look like frost on its skin. These were picked in the fall and live in our garage:
Or the awesome leeks and greens we have:
I also love our fruit trees. We have an apple tree, a pear tree, and a peach tree. The peach tree is the largest and we call it the mousy peach tree. When we first moved into the house, there were field mice that kept on trying to eat our rice. Mom set up a mouse trap and every day for a month, she would be able to find a dead mouse. She buried them under the peach tree and the tree ate the mice and grew strong. :) Calcium and flesh make good fertilizer.
What surprised me most this winter were the roses. They were in bloom and about to bloom. Lovely, vibrant pinks and yellows. It make me happy so I took pictures of them:
I hope you love seeing this as much as I love sharing with you!
<3
Hao
I do. What a beautiful, serene post, Hao. My parents have an incredible garden in Gainesville, too, but I've never (and still don't) appreciate it... I'm just not a gardener. But I do enjoy the fruits! of the five acre thing. Grapefruits and oranges and kumquats and loquats and calamandas and pears and figs and lemons and limes and chives and the occasional avocado. we used to have over two hundred rose bushes... but they've all died from neglect now. it's a little sad.
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