I have discovered a newfound love for gardening. My grandmother let me help her in her flower garden when I spent afternoons at her house after school. Since my mother had to work late and relied on her job to support the two of us by herself, my grandmother stepped in to watch me whenever my mom couldn’t. My grandmother was completely indispensable to my upbringing and my development as a human being. I still have fond memories of baking cookies in her kitchen and planting beautiful flowers in her garden. It was frightening when she suddenly passed four months ago. I didn’t know how I was going to carry on with such a huge and open void now in my life. That is when I turned to gardening once again, both to honor and cherish her memory and as an escape from the sorrow and anxiety plaguing my mind. It was great exercise for my body and for my soul. I really loved seeing the flowers I planted bloom once the spring season rolled around. Unfortunately, I got a little crazy with the planting. I wanted to partially obscure my ugly HVAC condenser with flowers. The flowers I chose grew at a rate at least twice as much as I was expecting when I first planted them. They got out of control and started affecting the air flow of the condenser while it cycled through the afternoons. I planted so much foliage around my air conditioner condenser that I was forced to cut most of it back to prevent any damage to the components. Gardening is great as long as you don’t get too crazy with what you plant in your yard.