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Of all the things people treasure in life it's the connections we make that are most valued. Often we make those connections unknowing when we become emotionally attached to something, someplace or someone. Gardening is one of those human activities where such connections seem almost impossible to avoid.

For me that connection was with my father and his garden. It was a simple thing really which at the time didn't seem all that important. I remember setting out tomato plants with dad in the hot spring sun when I was seven. Then learning how to use a hoe and rake when I was 8 or, the hard work of breaking sod so we could add more rows. There was also the seemingly impossible art of getting seeds planted at the right depth.

Putting out the garden was an annual ritual, something I took for granted without much thought. It was just something we did, something dad did when he was a kid. As a child the garden was more a chore than most anything else, often it seemed more like work than enjoyment.

Watering and hoeing had to be done everyday and, of course, those things were left to me. Doing it right meant hauling water in a bucket because using a hose was wasteful. Each plant got a little drink, just right, not to much, not to little. It seemed to be an endless thankless job, especially to a scrawny kid who'd rather be watching superman on TV.

Oddly however there was something special about caring for those plants. It was a connection that I never understood until many years later when I had my own children. Out there in my dad's garden I came to understand commitment and responsibility. I learned that the reward is proportional to the effort. I learned how to nurture life, to protect and care for those things that matter, lessons which would serve me when I became a father.

What couldn't understand as a child was how important the garden was to my development as a person. The effect it had on my character and my view of the world was impossible to know until many years later. As a kid, grumbling about my gardening chores, I couldn't know something dad had already learned; gardens teach us the most important things we need to know.

Perhaps gardening evokes in us some distant genetic memory of generations past, planting and harvesting, season to season. It connects to all those who've tilled the earth back through countless eons. As it connects can also connect us to those special people in our lives today.

My father passed away recently leaving behind a legacy of many

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