You couldn’t stir them with a stick at Taggart’s Garden Center. It’s like walking onto acres of colorful spring flowers and plants. I wanted one of everything, even if I didn’t know their names, or if they needed sun or shade.

Everyone kept their distance and some, like me, wore masks. Most had already filled their carts while I stood there in awe.

I knew I had to head to the vegetable aisles first because I’d been ordered by my Tomato Whisperer, Roe LaPorte, to get my tomatoes in the ground that day. It was there where I

It was there where I ran into Claude “Boogie” Whittenburg who was taking his time selecting the just-right tomato plants. Since I only have one season of growing under my belt I started to ask him for advice, but he was too intent to notice me then so I made my own selections.

After that I ran into Russ Choate who said he’d been sent to get three more lilies. He asked me where they were.

I hardly know a lily from a rose so I told him I didn’t know, but a woman nearby that I didn’t recognize in her mask, told him where he could find them.

I went back to the flowers and picked out several and was told that they were all plants that require sun, “and you don’t have a lot of sun in your flowerbed,” said Jill, my Daughter From Another Mother. “How can you tell that?”

“How can you tell that?” I asked.

She told me to look at the directions on the little white picks.

That was another sunshine moment for this wannabe gardener, and soon Eddie Taggart’s daughter, Mauricia, rang us up and carried our boxes of plants out to the car.

My tomato plants went into the dirt that afternoon, and most of my flowers were in pots later that evening.

I admit that was only my first trip there, a couple or three weeks ago, and I bought more flowers.

Now I wish I’d bought some carrots and lettuce, but I think you have to buy those in seed form. That wouldn’t work for me because I’m in to instant gratification, except when it comes to tomato plants.

I’ve already got two tiny tomatoes on them, and I’m proud to report that I haven’t killed anything, yet.