Secrets of Mind and Reality

Guide To Plants

I used to be absolutely fascinated by my parents bookshelves when I was growing up. They had all kinds of strange and interesting old books that I would like to bworse at length. They had books of psychology from the 1950s, true crime novels, books of poetry, and assorted odds and ends from all over the world. The very best book that I found in there, surprisingly enough, was a guide to flowering plants.

I did not fall in love wh this guide to plants because I was such a big fan of plants. I liked wandering around outdoors, but I had never really looked at the plants around the house very much. That was what made the guide to plants that I found so fascinating. It was one of those old-school guides that was done in pen and ink. The drawings were so vivid and detailed that you couldn’t help but be fascinated in the same way that the artist was fascinated. They would show you all the prominent features of the various plants that grew in the area we lived in, pointing out how to recognize this leaf from that leaf. It was a great guidebook, and got me exploring.

I bought my own guide to plants and set out to assemble a garden of my own. My parents were not very good at gardening, and mostly let wild things grow on their property. I wanted to change that all, and they were all too anxious to allow me to. My newfound fascination wh botany was a source of entertainment for me and of vegetables and flowers for them. Soon, I had all kinds of growing things neatly tended to. I was growing beats, carrots, lilacs, roses – you name and I grew .

My favore thing to grow was my tomato garden. If you have ever had fresh garden tomatoes, you know how much better they are than grocery store varieties. Tomatoes you finding in grocery stores are bred for their shelf life. They are relatively bland when compared to real authentic homegrown tomatoes. The guide to plants told me that there were approximately 15 different strains that were commonly grown in the part of the country I was living in. I set out to grow them all, and succeeded wh about 10 of them. I am still working my way through that guide to plants. Someday, I will have seen or grown every plant that lives around here.