As the seasons change again here in Minnesota, I have a confession to make… I am NOT a master gardener! What?!?! 😲

But I LOVE to watch plants grow.

Is it crazy? Not really sure yet.

I do get some wonky fruit and vegetables to feed my family and friends. And we have some beautiful flowers around our property. But you would never find my gardens on the cover (or even in the back pages) of a fancy gardening magazine.

(Note: This is NOT a picture of my garden. It is way too organized.) 😆

My garden is a bit more “rustic.” Yeah, that’s it. 😆 The plants kinda do whatever they want. Or maybe it’s my fault.

Every year, I think… “I know what do to have that beautiful, manicured, orderly garden.” And every year, something else goes sideways.

I try to remind myself to use more tomato cages, and stake up the plants, and use trellises, and not plant seeds so close together. And every year, I forget.

I always start off with good intentions. Everything looks so beautiful and orderly. I even grew some plants from seeds from the previous year. Amazing, right?!

Then the sun comes out and it rains some and I water everything. And BOOM… over-grown tomato plants that break their cages and fall over. Tiny little pepper plants because they are in the shadow of ginormous tomatillo plants that I thought I would try this year. Yellow cucumbers (what?!). Zucchinis that look like they developed elephantitis. Little apples on great big trees. Super weird corn this year. Apparently, it was not well pollinated. And radishes… sheesh. No radish, but lots of greens.

I’m sure you are thinking to yourself… “hmmm… why doesn’t she just Google or YouTube how to take care of all those plants?” And you would be right. But I am NOT a master gardener and there is a LOT of complicated information out there!

Honestly, I don’t really care.

What I love more than anything is just to watch stuff grow.

I love the changes that happen in our yard through the seasons. Especially from early Spring to the end of Summer. Bare branches and tiny little plants blossom into beautiful greens and reds and purples and yellows.

I love that I can walk out into my yard and pick fresh fruit and vegetables.

I love delivering bags of vegetables to friends.

I love that I can share our bounty of apples (still have no idea what kind they are – they were here when we moved in!) with the children in the neighborhood.

I love that my dogs run to the garden to eat the 3 or 4 beans that actually do grow.

I love that I get maybe 2 strawberries every few weeks from our plants on the deck.

I love that huge marigolds popped up from seeds I saved from last year.

I love finding new recipes for the gazillion ginormous zucchini that show up without me really doing much of anything. And the spaghetti squash… just takes over everything!

Note: These are actual photos of my garden!

The crazy thing is: I know there are right ways to do things to make your garden clean, orderly, and abundant. But I don’t really care. It’s just fun to see what grows. Are there lessons here? Sure. Do I want to learn them? Not really.

As my husband would say: “It’s far from good, but good from afar.” And that is all that matters.