With the help of our wonderful friends, Matt and Tori, my dream of having a vegetable garden came to pass this year. I have what might be referred to as a "black thumb" - the thumb of death for all things green. Mostly this isn't a problem, we have a "natural" yard - not many plants or trees to take care of. I have some cacti that have mostly survived my ministrations or lack there of. I'm actually having a go with a jade plant right now - wish it luck!So the garden idea was a leap of faith for me in many ways. When I was growing up in the States, my parents faithfully planted gardens and we regularly enjoyed the fruits of their labour (pun intended). In my memory, my contribution included weeding for an hour every Saturday, but my parents deny this vehemently. When we lived in Jamaica, we had fruit trees that grew on the property we lived on - oranges, ackee, rose apples, star fruit, guava - it was amazing.
So despite my failings as a horticulturalist, I wanted to have a garden of my own. Our friends helped us build some raised beds, fill them with beautiful, rich soil and also helped us out with seeds. I planted the seeds and the starts and I can honestly say that I had so little faith that they would actually grow. It seemed impossible that those little seeds could become anything under my care, but I faithfully watered the garden everyday without paying too much attention to what was going on. I was shocked when a couple of weeks later, green things started to poke their heads through the soil. Pretty soon there was a plethora of green with a little purple thrown in as my beets started to grow too. Nothing compared to the thrill of going out and finding lettuce ready to harvest and eat, sweet peas fat and juicy. Soon we'll be feasting on carrots, zucchini, beets. Yum! I'm already thinking about what I'll do differently next year, what I'll plant - I have faith now that I can do it!
There is nothing in the world like it. It's an amazing feeling to plant, to tend and to harvest. I highly recommend it. There are so many analogies for life in there, some obvious, some not so much - I'll let you have a think about those. For now, I wish you bon appetit!
