I have been reading on blog posts and magazine articles that vegetable gardening is on the rise. I truly hope that is true and not wishful thinking. Gardening gets a bad rap at times as being too much work or people just are unfamiliar with gardening so they shun the idea of getting out and planting something. One of the gardening problems is many young adults have never been exposed to gardening by parents or grandparents.  I sat in at a round table discussion a year or so back and a young lady in her late 20's stated that both her parents worked and while she remembered her grandparents were gardeners, they lived a considerable distance from them. So, she had to ask people questions about how to garden when she was ready to dig in the dirt.

I was lucky being raised on a farm and my mother planted this huge vegetable garden each year. My brothers and I learned about gardening whether we wanted to or not. Now all of us have gardens, a tribute to our mother who took the time and had patience to teach us the values of gardening.

Please take the time to answer questions if you have a neighbor child or even a neighbor who expresses an interest in your garden. The popularity of gardening may have wanned some in the past few years, but it is still a great past time and together we can bring gardening back into the spotlight. Bring some fresh vegetables to work and share them with co-workers. After a fresh bite of a tomato, who wouldn't be interested in growing their own?