And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

- The Great Gatsby

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote these words he did not have gardening in mind, but I return to this sentence each and every spring. Officially, summer is not yet here, but indeed great bursts of leaves are everywhere.

Hello! My name is Amy and I live with my Green Husband and two children, Pip and Sprout, in Plant Hardiness Zone 7, or more specifically Virginia. We live on a quarter acre of land on a busy street corner in a relatively congested "suburb" just outside of Washington, D.C. Since moving to our home almost eight years ago, we have had a garden each summer. Green Husband is a talented landscaper and skilled carpenter; I have, until recently, been chief laundry-doer and child-occupier, while he battled, er, harmonized, with Mother Nature. We both hold full-time jobs "outside" of the garden.

This summer will be a bit different for us: Our children are now older and can either join us in our gardening or find a myriad of outdoor activities that keep them happy and occupied. (To those of you who have very young children and a feeling a bit neglectful of your own garden plot, go easy on yourself – if a container of herbs is all you can manage this year, so be it. It gets easier.) This summer will also be quite different for me because due to a slight career change the months of June, July, and August will be mine to enjoy until I return to work in the fall. This will leave me plenty of time to spend with my children and…gulp…to garden. Oh, the pressure.

I hope you will check in with me throughout the summer as I share how my gardening dreams become gardening reality, for better or for worse. Green Husband has provided me with a fabulous garden foundation, but as he continues his full-time job this summer, it will fall to me this year to keep up with the garden so we can hopefully avoid some of our previous pitfalls, from drought to falling-asleep-on-the-couch-who-the-heck-has-the-energy-to-weed-that-blasted-garden. As the days grow longer and lighter, I can’t help but have that familiar conviction that life is beginning over again with the garden.


You can find more of Amy's writing on her blog, The Gift of Green.