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When I first moved to the city with my new husband, I was filled with trepidation. I had been a country girl my entire life. I wasn't sure how well I was going to be able to adjust. We moved into my husband's boyhood home in late summer.

The immediate area around the house was unkempt with waist high weeds. All the nearby houses had been abandoned, and torn down by the city. This neighborhood has once been a thriving community. Now it was just a rundown section of the city. Many lots were overgrown with weeds. The back of most lots had trees that were 40 feet tall or more.

I saw great possibilities! We could triple the size of our tiny yard by taking control of the overgrown lots. My husband didn't like the idea. "That's a whole lot of work on something we don't own" he said. I had to see his point, so I dropped the subject.

We were coming up on fall, anyway. It was an old house, with plenty of work to do on the inside. So, I concentrated on that. I was disappointed to see so many other properties in disrepair become visible as the trees lost their leaves. My husband is a "city boy". He tried to understand how I felt, but he only saw what he had always seen. In late winter, I bought some vegetable seeds. My husband said, "What in the world are you going to do with those?" I just smiled and said "you'll see!"

By the time late April rolled around, my seedlings were doing well. I picked an area in the yard that was sunny all day, and started to dig. When Brian got home from work, I proudly showed him my prepared garden bed. He shook his head and said, "You won't be able to get anything to grow there! But if digging in the dirt makes you happy, enjoy". He went in the house.

As spring turned into summer, my plants were growing like they had something to prove! The tomatoes were so heavy that needed re-staked three times. Brian started bringing friends into the backyard to show them our garden. When the first zucchini were ready, he took each of our closest neighbors two or three. As he saw the fruits of my labor develop more everyday, he finally got interested.

Brian wanted to know all about gardening. When do you plant, how do you plant, and what else can we grow? Towards the end of summer, as we sat in the backyard, Brian said, "Could we get flowers to grow, too?" I smiled and said "We can!"

The next year he wanted to start our garden in February! We live in a zone 5 area! Most plants couldn't go in the ground before May. Now, I was holding him back by his shirt tails.

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