My mantra for a while now has been, "I have all the resources I need, as and when I need them." I count my friends as being among those essential resources. One of my friends sent me a magnet that says it takes a long time to make an old friend and it's so true - but you can start any time. Before you know it, there's another 'old' friend.
Janet posted another picture of her very healthy-looking vegetable garden the other day. Robust, I would call it! What do you think? (Janet I hope you don't mind that I stole your pic!) 
I assume the potatoes are growing according to schedule now as I haven't heard to the contrary. For a while she kept fretting on her blog that they weren't growing enough and she thought she was doing something wrong. My mother said, "Yes, she's digging them up to look at them. Tell her to leave them in the ground!" I had to chuckle.
I assume the potatoes are growing according to schedule now as I haven't heard to the contrary. For a while she kept fretting on her blog that they weren't growing enough and she thought she was doing something wrong. My mother said, "Yes, she's digging them up to look at them. Tell her to leave them in the ground!" I had to chuckle.Anyway, I digress. I was thinking that friendships are like gardens in many ways...
We have to tend them. Sometimes we even have to go and dig them up to see how they're doing. (I really like this metaphor!) Spraying them with pesticides is not a good move but weeding them is essential. Occasionally, you find that a particular friend doesn't grow well in your garden and you replace the person with someone better suited to your conditions. It certainly doesn't mean that the person is a bad plant - just that the conditions don't suit. Or you may even find that one friend doesn't work well growing beside another one. You might have to tend them separately by putting them in separate sides of the garden.
Some friends are so strong and persistent that you could call them a weed. I mean that in the best way possible. Weeds are just plants that are ideally suited to that locale, albeit a little pushy. Sometimes you have to curb their enthusiasm!
Sometimes friends get blight or are eaten by slugs. Slugs are really bad - slimy individuals. They have a right to exist, but I don't want them in my garden, eating my friends!
Some friends go dormant during the winter months and then bloom in the summer. Others only last one season. Not all of them are 'old friends' but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy them while they're around.
Occasionally a friendship needs fertilizing or special attention. And they always need recognition and praise and to be talked to, even if it's electronically. I have a few that thrive on great music and several that like to be temporarily transplanted.
There are often great contrasts in a well-balanced garden. Some friends are so delicious you could eat them right up and others are decidedly prickly and stand-offish, but have a beautiful flower or are great at warding off garden predators. Some stand proudly in the sun and create quite a show and others are more bashful and like the shade best.
Lately I have needed friends who can stake me and put some twine around me to hold me up. I think I had a hard winter and got nipped by the frost. Last season I bore a lot of fruit and this season I need a rest. Gardens are good at compensating that way. Another of my friends can create the best blooms for the flower show this year and I will keep growing in a sheltered corner.
Have I exhausted the metaphor yet? I think so. Anyway, thanks for growing in my garden, and for occasionally acting as master gardener.
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