This quote perfectly captures one of the many things I love about gardening: playing in the dirt and smelling like it.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~ Margaret Atwood

As I prepare for a day of gardening, I start the day looking pretty normal (that is for me) with my hair twisted and clipped up, sunscreen on, dressed in a black top and shorts (for obvious reasons) and my gardening shoes. I grab my favorite drink, Zero Vitamin Water Lemonade, to keep hydrated and bring out all of my tools, large buckets and wheelbarrow.

With all of the preparation done, I spend the day working hard, but it feels like play. In my cutting garden, I learn how each individual seed should be planted. Some are sown directly on the soil, which requires my hands lightly packing them into the ground. Others need to be planted ¼” or deeper with my Korean hoe. Once the approximately seventeen varieties have been planted in rows and my bamboo trellises are erected, I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment and excitement of watching the seeds germinate and become the flowers they were meant to be.

By day’s end my cutting garden, though nothing but dirt, seeds and bamboo trellises, is pristine, and my perennial gardens look beautiful on their own, though they are next on my list. But I, on the other hand, look far from presentable. My hair that was nicely tied up is now loosely hanging from its clip. I have dirt all over my legs, arms, back, and in hair, and smudges all over my face. And yet as messy as I look, I just don’t think my day would feel as wonderful and successful if I came in from all of my planting without being covered from head to toe and smelling like dirt.

For all that dirt reaps, and how it puts up with me constantly digging it up, moving it around, stomping on it to arrange my gardens, I realize that I have a deep sense of gratitude for dirt. How different this earth and I would be without it…

Do you like playing in the dirt even as an adult? Share with me by commenting below.

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