It happened after we moved into our first home. We had shared an apartment and a rented house, but this was our first home. It was ample enough; it had a large back yard; the neighbors seemed friendly… We were in love and full of hopes and dreams.
I liked the kitchen area the most. The wall behind the sink had windows that reached half way down to the floor. The kitchenette room was our access to the back yard, so it had the large glass sliding door we so often see in suburbia. Even in the dark and dreary St. Louis winters we had light in that room. The day we moved in I sat down at the kitchen table and looked over my back yard. The king surveying his domain. I decided then and there that we would have a garden.
For those of you who do not know me: I am a doctor. There is nothing in my background or education that suggests that I should have a green thumb. My father was a college professor. I never saw him get down on his knees to pick up a piece of lint that may have found its way to the floor. Much less have his hands touch the good earth. I never saw the man dirty. I literally grew up in the university. Early in life I was told that it was my job to study and do well in school. None of my learning involved growing anything larger than a bacterium.
On the other hand, there was my grandfather. My mother’s dad, from the other side of the family. The ones that did not think of themselves as aristocrats. He was a farmer. He had a third grade education. He did not own a clock: he woke up when the roosters crowed; he went out on his farm to work; he came home when it got dark. Maybe because he allowed me to get dirty, maybe because I never saw a book in his house, maybe because he was so obviously satisfied with who he was and what he did, I worshipped the man.
I had tried my hand (literally) at milking cows. Never got more than a drop. I attempted to climb trees to bring down oranges and mangoes. Made it about 18 inches up before I fell. Even the raspberries, which were easily accessible, made me fail when I aroused an angry wasp. It stung me a few times. By the time I was seven I realized that farming was not in my future. While my cousins were experts at killing pigs and scaring the big tom turkey, I wondered what the hens were feeling as they laid their eggs, and I thought that it was a bit disgusting how some of them came out stained with stool or blood.
But now I had a house, and a yard, and no cousins around to make fun of my futility. I had some resources (the man at the hardware store). By God, I was going to farm. I was warned by some neighbors that tomatoes required a lot of work. I decided I’d start small, with flowers, and as I gained in expertise I’d move on to fruits and vegetables.
The man at the store suggested roses. They required some care, so that I would feel as if I’d done something useful, but they were not hard to maintain. They were beautiful, I could enjoy them most of the summer, and they came in a wide variety of colors and sizes. I bought a few bushes, and I promised I’d water and feed them as if they were my children.
The planting went well. I picked a narrow strip of ground immediately below the kitchen windows. It was the sunniest place in the yard, and when the roses bloomed I’d be able to smell their fragrance from inside. I did my watering, and I inspected daily to make sure the roots had taken. Soon I saw some evidence of growth, and I was overtaken with joy and a profound sense of accomplishment.
It was then that I thought about feeding. The man at the store had mentioned commercial fertilizer, but I knew from my grandfather that manure was God’s way to make plants grow. A secret here: I love the smell of manure. My grandfather ran a one man operation. He had cows, and he did not have the time to clean up after them. I still remember with tears in my eyes how happy I became after I crossed the river (my grandfather had to place a shaved log across the stream to serve as a bridge) and, before I could see his house, I smelled the manure. I’m convinced this is the major reason that I love circuses: elephant manure is an even more seductive scent than cow dung.
Luckily, I did not have to go far and wide to find manure. We had a dog, a black lab who was growing fast and ate an enormous amount. I decided I would surprise my wife with huge, beautiful roses. I volunteered to take the dog out every time that he needed to poop. I carefully picked up his body waste and laid it around all my rose stems. I was smart enough to know that it wasn’t all about manure. I took grass clippings and covered the dog manure with them, so that the casual observer would not have known that my rose bushes were swimming in dog waste. I kept on watering, and I anxiously anticipated my first bloom.
Within a week I noticed that my wife was acting strange. Thirty seconds after I threw a banana peel into the trash she’d empty out the can and place the plastic bag in the large trash can in the garage. She opened the refrigerator, many times a day, and scanned its contents carefully, only to close the door without taking anything out. She spent what seemed like hours looking at the cabinet under the kitchen sink; she felt the plumbing up and down; she even asked me once if I felt the cabinet floor was damp. She became irritable, and at one point she even said something to the effect that maybe there was something wrong with our new castle of dreams.
Things came to a boil on a Sunday afternoon. It was particularly hot, but there was usually a breeze that came through the house if we left most windows open. We had just sat down at the kitchen table to have some iced tea and just to talk over the numerous meaningless and necessary things couples need to discuss. Half way through the conversation she stood up abruptly and said: “I can’t stand it any more!” She walked away from the kitchen, almost in tears.
“Stand what?” says I.
“You mean you can’t smell this?”
“Smell what?” says I again.
“The whole kitchen smells like crap and you don’t notice?”
It was then that I remembered that of late I had been thinking of my grandpa a lot. How much I enjoyed my visits to the farm. The limitless grapefruits and berries; the black home grown coffee; the fresh eggs; the smell of manure…
“Is that why you’ve been acting so strange lately?”
“How would you act if your kitchen smelled like this all the time?” She was halfway between rage and tears.
All of a sudden I realized that my rose fertilizer was responsible for her distress. And now that she mentioned it, yes, it did smell of dog do in the kitchen, and, to a lesser extent, the whole house.
I had a decision to make here. I could wait until dark and move the dog manure far, far away. This would mean that the smell would miraculously disappear by the next morning. Knowing my wife, I was sure this unexplained miracle would bother her more than the smell itself. I decided to come clean.
“It’s my rose fertilizer that smells.”
“Your what?”
“I make my own fertilizer. Like mulch. Dog manure and grass.”
“You put dog poop on your roses? Are you stupid?”
I said that manure was good for plants; everyone knew this.
“Not the dog kind!” She proceeded to explain, not without much agitation, about the difference between carnivore and herbivore manure. She said something nasty about people who had high IQ’s who thought they knew everything and ended up messing with other people’s minds.
I knew it was time for me to leave, fast. I opened the sliding door and went to work on my rose garden. By that evening our kitchen was almost back to normal.
I bought the store man’s fertilizer. The roses did OK, but they were not the best in the neighborhood. Not even close. I decided that I could only do something that I’d be the best at. Something that allowed me to be smart and creative. I gave the bushes away, paid some of my Hispanic patients to grow us a garden, and I chose to spend all of my time being a doctor.
Picture: https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7362/9245548487_58a3f3ca35_z.jpg
Lol! You are so real——-and funny!
La segunda vez que lo leo y vuelo a sonreír . Jorge
That is just hilarious! I love it!
Just loved the story, it gave Rich and I a really good laugh. I can just picture Phyllis giving you “heck” on your “gardening skills.” Thanks for sharing. Irene
I can recall the day we left Northern Ontario, and moved to Dunville, Ontario… We put all our belongings in a old picup truck.. When I look back I wonder how we all fit in the truck. We also brought along our daughter’s cat. It stayed under the truck seat most of the way, but when it got nervous it circled around the cab of the truck, and caused us a lot of probllems..
When we arrived at the house my husband Bob had rented for us, we were happy to get out of the truck, and strech our legs. Bob was already working for a telephone company in Dunnville, it was owned by an American Company called Contel, so he was able to find a place for us to live.
When we pulled into the driveway of the house, I was surprised to find out how large the house was. Bob said he rented it from a doctor who moved out of it, or retired. The house was so large one part of it was rented out to another family, who we became close frinds with..They were from Scotland. They had two children, a boy named Collin, who was our son’s age, and a darling little girl.
Our son Kim and our daughter Rhonda investigated the garage when they got out of the truck, and found two pogo sticks, and started jumming up and down on them. We did not know waht they were at first.
I went into the kitchen and there was no stove to cook on. We had to buy a plug in fry pan to cook our meals in. I took a look in the living room, It was so large,It looked like a ballroom,and we had no furniture to put in it.
Getting more depressed by the minute, I went upstairs, and found that Bob had purchased new beds for all of us,and had made them up ready for us to go to bed that night. It was so beautiful to see beds all ready. We were all very tired from the trip. I never loved my husband moren than when I seen how he welcomed us to our new palace with beds all made up wirh nice bedspreads on them.
After my search of the place I decided to take a look ousdie to see what was out there. What I found filled my eyes with rears of joy, and i knew that God was trying to cheer me up. Low and behold there were roses like I had never seen in my enitire life. At that moment I knew I would be okay.
The family that lived in the other part of he house became close friends. Kathy worked for Dominion Fabfics, and I got job there as well. Kathy and I walked to work together every morning.. I worked doing piece work payroll.,and Kathy worked in another area of the office,
Bob enjoyed playing the odd game of golf with Kathy’s husbnad George,and we all spent time togehter like one big happy family.. These were good years for all of us, a friendship that lasted for a lifetime.
I
A great great story. My wife and I both had a good laugh. I grew up on a small farm in mid-Missouri, so I know a little about spreading manure. Not dog crap though (LOL). I did milk a cow every morning and evening. So I could give you a lesson sometime. The rosebushes in the photos are beautiful and I didn’t smell a thing….
Still makes me laugh after all these years. In hindsight, I think it was one of those moments when I felt we were meant for each other. You knew about medicine and I knew about nasty odors and the difference between manure and poop! We were equals.
Funny, funny!! I’m a big city girl, didn’t see a tomato on the vine ’til I was about 21. I’ve never had a green thumb, but I can grow the easiest house plants. I think they are more like weeds.