It was a silly thing to do, but I did it and I’m glad. Hopefully, it will turn out to be a delicious decision. I’ll tell you about it directly.

Donna Sue loves to work in her garden and she is very gifted in doing so. Like most of us, she is really busy, but I think, when she has the time, she is at her best and happiest working with her flowers. I’m thankful for her efforts; there’s nothing more pleasant to view than lots of colorful flowers.

Luther Burbank may have been America’s greatest horticulturist, perhaps a fancy name for a gardener. He said “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.” I know a garden full of fragrant and blooming flowers helps my feelings.

I don’t do much to help Donna Sue. If it’s been dry, like lately, I may take a little pity on the drooping plants and give them a drink of water at times.

It’s sort of ironic. I spent my time as a boy and teenager working with plants and dirt. I was a farm boy and, although, I thought at times that was plenty of dirt and plants, I wouldn’t trade growing up on the farm for a million dollars and that’s the truth!

Donna Sue needed some potting soil the other day and I volunteered to go to the store and get a couple of large bags of dirt. Imagine that. Buying dirt. It’s almost like buying water. If, fifty or so years ago, you would have told this farm boy, one day you will buy the water you drink and spend good money on bags of dirt, I would have called for another kind of farm, the “funny” farm, to come and pick you up.

But, I went to the store to buy some dirt. I bought two bags and was wheeling the cart back into the store and walking back. My eyes saw something that caught my fancy. I saw the rutabaga plants and had the same feeling that I get in the spring when I see the tomato plants. I simply had to have a few rutabaga plants.

Just as I do with the tomato plants, I envisioned the tasty fruit of my labors and thought how much better they would be than the standard ones that I buy in the store.

Buying those plants was the silly thing to do. I chose a few and figured they might cost a dollar or two. When the nice lady scanned the rutabaga plants, she said “That’s $4.27.” I also didn’t want to take from Donna Sue’s dirt, so I bought another $13 bag of dirt.

So far, I’ve got $17.27 in a few plants and the dirt in which to grow them.  That’s okay, though, I am hoping I’ll get a rutabaga. How many of you know just how many rutabagas you can buy for $17? I told you it was a silly thing to do, but I guess my “wild hair” was acting up.

I got home and Donna Sue asked me what plants I had bought. “Some rutabagas” I said. She was proud of me. Donna Sue is a good-hearted woman!

Now, those half dozen plants are in the dirt and, at least for today, well-watered. I’m sure the “watch” has begun. I’ll be watching those plants, looking for the little root to swell into a big-enough “root-a-begger.”

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to go to the store and buy one that cost $1.75. Perhaps, I should go to

Washington where paying ten times too much for something is fashionable.