From most accounts, the Pilgrims weren’t exactly savvy gardeners when they arrived in the New World.  The Native Peoples had to teach them about cultivating corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans in a climate very different from England’s, or they might have starved while walking around in those funky shoes and weird hats.

But at least the Pilgrims got one thing right. After a long sea voyage, and a rocky start in their new home, they decided to rest for awhile and express their thanks for nature’s bounty.   

Tomorrow we’ll gather round our dinner table, like many American families, and give thanks for the blessings of faith, family, friends, and homes.  But today, I’m going to play pilgrim by making a short list of just my garden blessings: 

BrownTurkey figs

I’m grateful for the Brown Turkey fig tree that provide us with delicious fruit for preserves.  

I’m thankful for spring rain. 

I appreciate the cherry-pie perfume of summertime heliotropes. 

Summer heliotrope

I welcome the bats that wing through our yard, snapping up mosquitoes.

I’m grateful for non-profit seed exchanges, like Seed Savers of Decorah, Iowa, which helps preserve heirloom fruits, flowers, and vegetables.

I’m grateful for sun-ripened tomatoes that taste so good on bread spread with mayonnaise and a little salt and pepper. 

I’m thankful for timers that help keep the garden watered even in a drought.

I appreciate Plant-A-Row-For-The-Hungry, an organization that helps gardeners share generously with the less fortunate.

I’m thankful that we gardeners keep finding exciting and new plants to grow, thanks to hybridizers, developers, growers, and researchers. 

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, why not take a moment to count your own green blessings, and remember to express your gratitude, your love, and your gardening passion–the watchword for the 2009 Southeastern Flower Show—every day!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Lynn

www.LynnCoulter.com

Thanksgiving is almost here.  Are you panicking yet?

Suddenly I’m slamming into a boatload of things I meant to do before the holiday.   I was going to polish the furniture with the good paste wax; clean the windows; iron my best tablecloth; wash the pretty glasses that never get used until company comes, and….well, you get the picture.

But now my son is home from college with a duffel-bag full of laundry, and his friends are swarming over the house; my husband is about to start a new job, and I just realized I haven’t even bought a turkey yet.  So I’m a wee bit behind.

But I’m still planning to make a pretty arrangement for the mantle.  We have a few mums that survived the cold, and lots of acorns and hickory nuts.  I can weave them into a garland of silk (that is, fake) autumn leaves, along with some blush-colored apples, an ivory-colored pumpkin left from the garden; and a couple of candles placed inside glass globes.  There…that’s one thing done.

Thanksgiving is about bounty.  But even though I’m grateful that our gardens are filled with flowers and foods, I’m remembering to stop and say thanks for simple things, too.  Take a look, for example, at this single aster blossom, with all its glorious color and symmetry. It’s the Tatarian aster, which can look rather like an oversized weed in the landscape, but which earns my respect because it’s late blooming and even holds its looks during light frosts.  (For more about this charming flower, see http://www.floridata.com/ref/A/aste_tat.cfm).

There are many things to be thankful for at this time of year, including the simple gifts of nature!