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by Rob O'Hannon

The things my garden has taught me is humility. It's the biggest crop my garden produces, in the form of rocks of every shape and size.

My gardening days started in earnest several years ago when we purchased a home in NH. After having lived in the city, with it's minuscule plots hardly bigger than a window box, I suddenly had an acre to land to work with. It was time for me to become Supergardner!

I had always fancied myself as some kind of gardening genius, using little stones to line plant beds, planting things in neat rows, etc. in the little areas we had available back in the city. I immediately drew up plans for our new gardens a vegetable garden here, some annual beds there, a rock garden would like nice here, and yes, we'd have perennials scattered through out. And wouldn't pathways connecting it all be nice? Then came the big dig.

The soil was rich. The water table was high, which is great for trees and shrubs. It was also great for rocks rock after rock after rock pushed up through the soil by the water below. As soon as I'd dig my pitchfork in CLINK another rock. I was fast becoming the Charlie Brown of gardeners.

And the wildlife was another factor Supergardener had not counted on. Somehow the word went out over the animal internet that there was a new garden in town. Deer, turkeys, groundhogs, squirrels and chipmunks (please tell me why, oh why, do chipmunks like just one bite of a tomato?) all heard the diner bell and came calling.

After a few years of experimentation with various protective measures we have closed our little animal cafe. Our borders are shaping up. I even won the "Battle of Lilac", where I foolishly decided to dig up a 30 year old iliac bush that had roots that journeyed to the center of the earth so I could put in a deck (I replanted the various lilac pieces around the yard, and they are recovering nicely.) And of course I hit rocks.

I'm still working on the grand garden plan. There are piles of rocks here and there: monuments to work gone by. And when the weather's nice I get my gardening gear on, grab my shovel and thrust it into the ground CLINK! another bumper crop of humility.

Learn more about this author, Rob O'Hannon.

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True gardening stories: What my garden taught me - the hard way

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