Gardeners help make world more beautiful

June 4-11 is National Garden Week, where the talent and skills of every green thumb is celebrated.

As a child, I remember my grandmother planting flowers and having me help her water them.

She would have colorful flowers and aloe plants and what seemed like thousands of ferns lining her patio and sitting in various places in her home.

My great grandmother was the same. She had bushes and flowers everywhere, which she cared for meticulously.

My aunt, Dot, inherited the green thumb from her mother and grandmother. However, she focuses more on growing food than plants and flowers.

Now, we get to my mother.

I don’t know what went wrong in her genetic code, but my mother can’t grow plants to save her life.

Or, to be literal, to save the plant’s life.

We have had a total of five plants around our house survive for any significant amount of time by my mother’s hands – one rose bush and four random bushes whose plant name I can’t even remember.

The rose bush lasted a few years before it gave up. Three of the random bushes still line my parents’ driveway to this day. One of those bushes is now taller than I am and is named Lucky.

Actually, I lied. Two other plants have survived my mother’s touch. Two plants – one from each of my grandparent’s funerals.

My grandparents were named Carolyn and Tommy. The plants from their funerals share those names.

They’re actually doing pretty okay, which is a rare occurrence.

Now normally, if a person can’t grow a plant or flower, they may just stick to decorating with fake flowers.

Despite the few occurrences of survival, my mom has mostly done just that. Even then, we have to watch out for the plants.

I mean, I distinctly remember leaves crumbling off a fake fern my mother had.

She killed a fake plant.

I can pick on my mom about her lime slightly yellow-green thumb because her lack of gardening skills was passed down to me.

Sure, I can help in a garden. I can put soil in a pot and water plants when people tell me to.

To do it on my own...

Let’s just say the human race shouldn’t put its trust in me to keep Earth green.

I have tried many times to start growing flowers and plants. Each attempt reminds me why I shouldn’t.

I tell you readers this information about my mother and myself for the reason I mentioned at this beginning of this column – it’s National Garden Week.

We should take a moment to appreciate the work of those who can grow flowers and plants.

I’m jealous of their talents and truly love to admire the fruits of their labor. Almost nothing is prettier than a beautiful flower.

So, if you run into your friendly neighborhood gardener, tell them, “Hey. Good job. Love what you’re doing.”

Maybe even offer a high five.

In my opinion, gardeners help make the world a little more beautiful. That’s definitely worth a thank you now and again.

Cassie Gibbs is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].