[2021-02-24] Gardening
My mom always had a big garden—multiple gardens, in fact. Spring vegetables (onions, radishes, lettuce, peas) were started early in the smallest garden, closest to the house. Summer vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, etc.) were grown in the larger, adjacent garden. Sweet corn was planted in one of the fields next to the house. Three rows of raspberry bushes near the road required daily picking. An orchard of apple trees surrounding the house produced bushels of the fruit by fall.
We were always picking something: weeds, vegetables, fruit. We spent hours in the garden every day, harvesting the produce that ripened all summer long and into the fall. Anything that wasn't eaten was frozen, preserved, sold or given away.
We sold sweet corn for years. It was relatively easy work, though perhaps less desirable when we had to pick corn in the rain or when a customer arrived while we were eating supper.
In September, we would spend an entire day harvesting, husking, blanching, cutting and bagging sweet corn for the freezer. The end result of this assembly line was about 100 bags of corn, which we stored in one of two large chest freezers loaded with frozen produce by early fall.
Gardening has always felt like more than a hobby. It has felt like home.
Last summer, inspired by my sister's garden (about which she texted me: "Garden gone wild! It's taking over my yard. Neighbours are coming to tour it. Lol"), I decided to plant a few seeds in containers on my balcony. About six weeks after my late-July planting, I had a tiny crop of lettuce, kale and chives. It was a positive reminder of growth, family and renewal at a time when I was unexpectedly dealing with a cancer diagnosis and surgery.
This year, I'm looking forward to expanding my experiment in container gardening. In place of the flowers I normally put in planters on my deck, I will attempt to grow vegetables: lettuce, onions, radishes, small tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs. Flowers are pretty, but vegetables are functional.
Talking to my mom this afternoon about vegetable gardening was a mix of fond memories from the past and delightful anticipation of the future. Perhaps that goes against the maxim to focus on the present, but it felt right to spend some time lost in happy recollections and cheerful expectations. This is the most I've contemplated the future in months. Maybe the Chinese proverb "Life begins the day you start a garden" says it all.
I found a few other quotes about gardening that feel right, if aspirational:
- Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years. – Unknown
- Garden as though you will live forever. – William Kent
- The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. – Gertrude Jekyll
- Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes. – Unknown
- Gardens are a form of autobiography. – Sydney Eddison
- There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues. – Hal Borland
- A garden always has a point. – Elizabeth Hoyt
For me, the point of a garden—this year—may be more than it would have been had I not been diagnosed with cancer. In addition to home, a garden represents vitality, growth and an investment today in anticipation of a return in the future.
