My maintenance man and I are friends, and he likes to see what's new in my garden when he comes to do work. This morning, he said "You must be rich!" I asked why he said that, and he said "You've got some expensive plants in here."

I had to laugh. I told him "I've been here four years, and all total, I've probably spent about $100 on this garden, and most of that was on fertilizer and potting soil. Everything in here is grown from seeds, cuttings, or gifts from other gardeners."

He laughed and said he knew that, and he was just repeating what somebody else said to him about my gardens the other day. Only a non-gardener could look at my garden and think I'm rich, with all the used and found materials in it.

But yes, I do consider myself rich to have such a wealth of good friends who send or give me plants and seeds, and such an abundance of useful materials to get from roadsides, dumpsters and the community garden trash pile. I guess wealth is all relative. My gardens aren't the prettiest, and sometimes I look at my ragtag borders and make-do trellises and thing that I wish I had money so I could do more, but then I look at the plants and think they are what it's all about, right?