Our mothers grew up in the Depression and married shortly after WWII. Both were masters at making something pretty, nutritious, or unique out of leftovers. Roger’s mom could take food leftovers, make those into soup, serve it with cornbread, and satisfy a hungry youth baseball team. Sue’s mom could take scraps of fabric and mismatched buttons and turn them into one-of-a-kind attractive blouses for herself and her two daughters. Our mothers rarely threw anything away; instead, they squinted up their eyes and said quietly, “What could I make with this?”
We benefited from our moms’ hard work and enjoyed abundance. We both learned to be creative and reuse things because it was interesting, not because we had to. We still often ask, “What could I make with this?”
Gardeners can do the same thing with plants. One man’s no-longer-wanted plant can become the star of someone else’s landscape. The key is to know the plant and what it can do.
