Becoming a Master Gardener Part 1

I have been a gardener my entire life. My earliest garden memory is of climbing our backyard vine-engulfed redwood fence. The neighbor's trees hung over into our yard, offering a canopy of shade on blistering days. Shrubs pushed through the weathered slats, reaching out in friendship into our small space. I explored the world as a four year old might: pulling up grass to investigate roots, picking flowers and removing the petals, and later, at a new home in another town, making chains of small white daisies that grew in the meadow next door. And soil! What a wonderful medium for fun! I was dressed in play clothes especially chosen for a child's disregard of dirt. Of course I did not know it, but I was learning art and design, physics, chemistry and architecture. In my play there was constant exploration, observation and discovery. As I "unearthed" my world, I grew with the sounds, sights, smells and feel of the living plant world. I look back upon my green awakening, knowing that it has stayed with me my entire life and am thankful my parents allowed me such freedom to imagine and dream and create.