Happy Laborless Day!

Happy Laborless Day! Nope, that isn't a typo. The whole idea behind the creation of Labor Day was to give the poor working stiff a day of rest at a time when people were working 12-16 hours a day, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week, and there were no child labor laws. Finally, after years of struggle, protest, and the creation of labor unions, a day was officially set aside for the average working person to rest. So what do we do with this holiday besides have one last cook-out and eat hamburgers? If you're a gardener, you work.

I can remember when I had a big garden to tend and was still working a regular job. I would covet this day as time I could put in cleaning up the things that had already had their glory and were starting to die back, pruning and checking those things that were still blooming, and harvesting the gold of my garden, my veggies. Red, White, and Blue in my garden translated into tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant (okay, purple is as close to blue as I could get).  It was my way of celebrating all of the hard work I had put in starting in March with the cleanup from the winter and preparing the beds for planting, all the way to being able to pluck a ripe cherry tomato from the bush and pop it in my mouth. Yum! 

Today, with only a tiny table-top garden to tend to, I continue the tradition by harvesting my herbs to dry, pruning back the flowering plants like my begonias and geraniums, and pulling out my little autumn garden decorations to keep the gnomes and the fairies company. I even have a scarecrow hanging nearby, not to scare away any crows, but to keep a certain curious cat from checking things out up there.

Later on today I will be going to my daughter's house for the last cook-out of the season and, joyfully, also to help my great-grandson celebrate his 8th birthday which just happened to fall on Labor Day this year, a double reason to celebrate: the birth of a very special boy, and the feeling of accomplishment of a job well-done. May your Labor Day be as joyous and bountiful.

And so it is.