Perfect day was spent at garden fair

I felt like a kid in a candy store when my husband and I attended a local garden fair. We were surrounded by all things gardening. There were ornamental plants, vegetable starts, garden decorations, supplies and everything else remotely related to gardening. There was even an ice cream truck offering instant energy for gardening.
The choices were intoxicating. Giant plants, tiny plants, common plants, and rare plants filled the spaces. I could have spent the entire day wandering from one display to another. I spotted someone I used to know, but my husband reminded me that I could not grow the orchids artfully arranged in front of the grower. Besides, he was engaged in a serious discussion with another lover of beautiful flowers. If my daughter had been with us, she surely would have gravitated to the orchid guy. She grows orchids as easily as I grow weeds.
Some of the selections cost far more than I was willing to pay. Some had reasonable prices. If anything was under priced, I didn’t see it. After drooling over garden ornaments, odd sculptures, and tomato plants already sporting green tomatoes, I settled on a booth that had vegetable plants sprawled all over the place.
Our cucumbers didn’t come up this year, and I wanted to pick up some that were already up and growing. I bought three different kinds. As I was paying for them I happened to ask the lady if she had any Fairy Tale eggplants. She smiled and said she did. She also told me she likes to eat them raw. I tend to bread and fry them. The plant she tucked into my bag was over a foot tall. The eggplants I have at home are only an inch or two high. The new plant should bear purple fruit at least a month earlier than the others.
After my success at finding exactly what I wanted while resisting the siren song of things I didn’t need, we strolled though one of the display gardens. It was lush and beautiful. I thought that if everybody spent time in such a soothing place, there would be far less evil in the world.
We walked back to the car with a spring in our steps. I had new treasures to plant, the clouds overhead had seen fit to not sprinkle us and all was right with the world.
The rest of the day went just as well. A stop at the craft store yielded supplies for current projects. The home improvement store had the hole saw we had been looking for. Lunch was complete with entertainment from a stranger’s toddler.
After we returned home I pulled the fence away from our pathetic eggplants and tucked the new one into its permanent home. I gave the tiny ones a pep talk and told them they were expected to catch up to the new one before summer was over.
The cucumbers were introduced to the metal cage that would help them climb as they grew. I was pleasantly surprised that none of my purchases were root bound. I gave the new plants a drink from the rain barrel. I went out the next morning to check on them and was pleased that there were no teeth marks on any of the leaves. I wish I could say the same about the row of leafless beans a few feet away.
Sometimes life graces us with a perfect day. Sometimes it doesn’t. It is the little, personal things that make the difference. Little successes, like finding the ideal plants at reasonable prices, can make a cloudy day seem sunny.
In a month or so, we will begin picking the fruits of our labors. We will smile as we remember that one perfect day.