Winning

Yep, I admit it.  I am in love with winning.  And tonight, I was a winner.

Dirt Magazine is a pretty cool small publication, serving southern New York State and Northwestern New Jersey.  It's savvy, it's hep, it's green.  So when they announced a Kitchen Garden Contest, I thought, "Why not?"  I'm an organic gardener who doesn't know what she's doing half the time, but I do it anyway.  So I entered my garden.  That was back in the spring.  Who knew that this was going to be the summer from hell for gardeners?  The judges came to see my gardens in late July, and despite the blight that was claiming my tomato and basil plants, they liked what they saw.  I was encouraged to keep up with all the work of gardening in readiness for the garden tour, which was today.

Despite the fact that the sign for my garden was placed six houses down on my neighbor Marion's house, a few stalwart garden tourists found me.  Ten women, all lovely, and it was fun to chat with them and show them my digs.  I even gave clematis volunteers to a couple of them.  (I just hope that other people didn't stop at Marion's house, wondering where the gardens were.  Marion is 85 years old, and I do not think she would have understood or appreciated the confusion.)  One garden tourist even presented me with one of her treasures, Crocosalia  "Lucifer," at the awards ceremony in exchange for the clematis I'd given her.

So Jenna accompanied me to the awards ceremony (free wine, beer and hors d'oeuvres) where my little fan club of ten women were cheering the announcement that I'd won one of the prizes.  It felt good.  I also won one of these garden hods:




Am I in love with being a winner?  Or am I in love with the fact that I work hard in my garden and that hard work was recognized tonight?





Both.  But mostly, I am in love with the very simple fact that I took on the task of gardening with no understanding or preparation eleven years ago . . . and today I won an award for the most creative garden.