One of my earliest memories is of getting lost among the rows of sunflowers in my parents’ garden. They grew big, glorious sunflowers that towered over my head and nearly blocked out the sun. The garden as I remember it was enormous. After we moved, my mom still planted a gigantic garden every year, and my grandparents always had a large garden as well. Mom hasn’t had a garden in five or so years, though, and Granny has scaled back her efforts quite a bit since her illness.

You’d think that growing up around such gardening prowess, a little bit of their green thumb-edness might have rubbed off on me. Such is not the case.

Rockford’s grandfather — also an avid gardener — gave me a tomato plant a few months ago. While tomato plants all across the region are heavy with fruit, the best I can say for our plant is that it’s not dead yet.

I’ve never had much skill with plants. Even so, I’ve always wanted to have a small vegetable garden. I don’t want the gigantic plots that my mom and my grandparents put so much work into. I’m far too lazy for that sort of labor. I just want to be able to harvest a few vegetables throughout the summer, to cut down on food costs and just to say, “Yeah, I grew that.”

Soon we’ll be in a house with a yard. A yard that I could conceivably use to grow something. The trouble is, I have no idea where to start. I’m aware that it’s too late to plant anything for this year — at least, I think it is — but I need to know what to do for next year. And when to do it. And how to do it, on this slope-fest of a yard.