“Avid gardeners” describes three special ladies in my life. Every summer as I was growing up, so were the gardens of my Mom and Aunt Lil. When we kids were all little, the patches included as many vegetables as flowers. Sitting on the porch “helping” clean snap peas, we probably ate as many as were put into the basket! And many a fresh tomato was snatched off the vine and eaten like an apple, for a summer afternoon treat!

Over time, as the seats at the dinner table emptied, the gardens transitioned to nearly all flowers with just an occasional tomato plant or two. Though “in-laws”, my mom and aunt were as close as real sisters. Each year they would have this “unspoken” friendly competition over who had the best garden that summer. I remember gladiolas taller than my mother, and fat, bright faced zinnias in Aunt Lil’s credenza vase.