Eight Things That Make Me Happy

I’ve been tagged by Philip at Dirt Therapy to post about eight things that make me happy. Only eight? That should be easy!

By the way, there are rules to this meme, which are supposed to be included first. Here they are: When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you (done). Post these rules before your list (done), then list 8 thoughts that make you happy (see below). At the end of your list, you must tag and link 8 other people (not going to do).

I’m not planning to follow all the rules, exactly. I’m just posting eight things related to gardening that make me happy.

Ready? Here goes…

The smell inside a warm greenhouse in the winter time. You know that smell, don’t you? It’s an earthy smell with perhaps a hint of some tropical flowers, depending on the type of greenhouse. There are at least three large greenhouses on my side of town, two of which are probably packed with poinsettias and holiday train sets right now. I think I’ll try to go visit one this weekend.

A new gardening book. I love reading about gardening and learning more about plants and gardening in general. When I get a new gardening book, I just know that book is going to change something about how I garden or introduce me to more plants I want or help me think of gardening in a new way.

The blooms on my night blooming cereus. Not only is it a spectacular bloom but it also reminds me of my Dad and how he enjoyed watching those flowers slowly open on a warm summer evening. The plant takes up an entire corner of my sun room, but since it makes me happy, I happily have given up that corner for it.

Having a hoe for every type of hoeing you could do in a garden. Actually, it makes me happy to have the means to buy good gardening tools, so when I am working in the garden, I know my hoes will hoe, my pruners will prune and my trowels will dig, so I can just think about the gardening.

Starting new plants from seed. Remember last January when the garden blogosphere was all abuzz about seeds, how happy many of us were to know we weren’t alone in sowing our seeds in anticipation of spring? I also enjoy looking through all the seed catalogs, deciding which seeds I’m going to buy. And even though I order my seeds online, I want the print catalogs to browse through, because it’s just isn’t the same browsing for seeds on the web. I guess I’m just an old-fashioned seed catalog browser.

Eating the first tomato of the season, while it is still warm from the sun. I know I had a little bit of fun posting once about how some of us go on and on about our first tomato, but really, when you get down to it, for some gardeners, the first tomato is the primary reason to have a vegetable garden.

Harvesting compost. It’s a miracle, a happy miracle. Garden scraps turned into black gold to enrich the soil. It makes me happy to harvest compost.

Writing and blogging about gardening and connecting with other gardeners who enjoy gardening, too. Without blogs and the Internet, I would never have connected with so many other enthusiastic gardeners.

And that’s eight things about gardening that make me happy. I wait now for others to post about what makes them happy.