What I Hope to Learn at the Home & Garden Show (BLOG)

“Gardening is not a hobby, and only non-gardeners would describe it as such,” the late Allen Lacy wrote in the book The Inviting Garden: Gardening for the Senses, Mind and Spirit. Lacy, who died at age 80 last December, was a professor at Stockton University and wrote a gardening column for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

He was an expert gardener and knew what he was writing about – especially when he wrote that gardening is not a hobby for the avid enthusiast. What he went on to say is that those who wholeheartedly involve themselves with gardening are involved with “life itself in the deepest sense.”

I wonder what Lacy, a thoughtful man who was mourned by many, would write of someone like me. I haven’t been transformed by the dandelions and morning glory that seem to like southern Idaho soil. I’m so far down the totem pole when it comes to gardening, in fact, that “hobby” isn’t even a word. I don’t seem to have a green thumb at all. I’m the guy who plants sunflowers in the shade.

That’s not to say I haven’t tried. The most success I’ve had was growing a tomato plant and a stalk of cilantro one summer when I decided I wanted to make homemade salsa. I don’t even know if “stalk” is the right word for a cilantro plant. That’s how shallow my knowledge is of gardening.

Maybe it’s time I learn a little more about this non-hobby that Mr. Lacy so reverently wrote about.

Enter the Southern Idaho Home & Garden Show that happens this weekend, Friday-Sunday, at the CSI Expo Center. Yep, I’ll be there for some of it. I’m sure you will be, too. Stop by the radio booth Friday night to say hi and tell me if you’ve learned anything new or your favorite booth.

As for me, I just want to know how often I need to water my plastic roses.