Trend Setter

I admit, I am not up on most current fads. I have had the same haircut since I was 30. I wear comfortable "old lady shoes" (clogs) rain or shine, casual or dressy. I wear the same style of Jockey underwear I have worn since I was 25.

I have had a vegetable garden in any place that had dirt and a little bit of sun ever since I can remember, even if it was a single tomato plant in a pot on my north-facing patio. In fact, I had a vegetable garden when I was still living at my parent's home in Connecticut. Some habits die hard.

This year, after many hours spent improving the dirt last year and getting minimal results, I have thrown in the towel and said "enough". Enough back breaking shoveling. Enough spending lots of money buying plants, only to end up with a single tomato, cucumbers that had no flavor and a basil plant eaten up by slugs. This year, after many years of growing vegetables, I have planted only flowers - brightly colored and hardy - yellow rununculas, violet and magenta petunias, and red Gerbera daisies.

So I was somewhat surprised to hear that some young people I know have recently gotten "into" vegetable gardening. My thirty year old trainer has plants in the community vegetable garden behind the gym. My housemate's twenty-something son has brought home vegetables in pots and plans to plant them in the same spot he was planning to build a firepit only a year ago. My college student next door neighbor has vegetable plants in his backyard. Why the sudden interest in vegetable gardening by the young people?

Well, it figures....now that I am no longer growing vegetables, doing so has become popular. I am once again not following the trend.

I guess that makes me a Trend Setter.