Gardening: A relaxing and enjoyable job

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PRINCETON — This summer, one of Laurie McGraw’s pepper plants has been growing … and growing … and growing.

“One pepper is 10 inches long now,” McGraw said. “I’m just leaving it there to see how big it will get.”

The plant, which produced the giant pepper, was actually the runt of the bunch, McGraw said. The giant pepper is the only pepper growing on that particular plant, she said.

McGraw’s vegetable garden contains several varieties of peppers and tomatoes, as well as squash, pole beans and cantaloupe. She gives away much of the bounty of produce from her vegetable garden to her neighbors, McGraw said.

Gardening is a hobby which allows her some peace and serenity in her life, the Princeton woman said. She likes to sit and relax in her yard and watch birds and animals after working in her garden. She keeps several bird and hummingbird feeders in her yard, as well as a squirrel feeder.

“It’s enjoyable for me to watch something grow,” McGraw said. “I think gardening is a relaxing and enjoyable job.”

McGraw, who works full-time, said sometimes it’s difficult to find time to tend her gardens, but she tries to make time to work in the yard in the early evening. Sometimes, she has to set aside a weekend for her gardening.

McGraw remembers, as a child, watching her parents and grandparents garden. She didn’t begin gardening until later in her life, when she lived in Salem, in southern Illinois.

“I’ve learned a lot about gardening from other people,” McGraw said. “My friends and neighbors sometimes give me new plants or flowers that I like and end up planting in my garden.”

Some of the plants in McGraw’s flower garden were planted before she was even born. Her grandmother began planting perennials around her Princeton home in the 1950s. McGraw moved to her grandmother’s house in 1992 and has expanded her grandmother’s garden to include the vegetables and more flowers.

Her flower garden includes columbine, coral bell, peonies, larkspur, sedum, geraniums, phlox, hen and chicks, petunias, daisies, irises and clematis.

“This house has been in my family, and I think it’s kind of neat that these plants have been growing here for so long,” McGraw said.