It's been a while since I've talked about something totally new about myself. This #BehindTheScenes goes into another hobby I love: gardening. It oddly began with family and it is ending up being a way to survive.
Growing up, I mainly saw my mother's relations. My father was estranged from his mother and one of his brothers. We saw his other brother maybe a couple of times a year because of his work schedule. My mother's family was mainly in the New Britain area. They immigrated there from Europe during the 50s and 60s and settled, like many immigrants, in the same neighborhoods. They stayed in the same town for 95% of their lives after leaving Europe.
The first years of my life were spent in the same apartment my parents rented from my grandmother years before. The next phase of my life was in a house across town (still in New Britain), which was predominantly white on our street. The other side was what my father called "The Projects", where the low income people of color lived. Sometimes, they hopped our fence to get to our street instead of walking around the block.
That house was one my grandmother owned. She moved into another apartment building (the same house she died in actually, just two months ago) and kept helping my parents out with this house. The place had a huge, fenced backyard, with raspberry bushes and a tilled plot on the other side.
That garden was the beginning of a new kind of education.
Even though my mother was first generation American, she still retained the same skills my grandparents had when they lived in Europe. My great-grandparents (maternal) were still alive when I was born. They owned a house and had a small garden, mainly tomatoes, raspberries and blueberries. When my grandmother moved into her apartment, she too turned her yard into a small farm, with blueberry bushes and cabbage.
To be honest, it also gave us some responsibility and it was a life skill I appreciate, even today. Our garden had rhubarb that grew every year. My mother let us choose some seeds and we grew vegetables for the summer - carrots, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and more. During the summer, we were always bringing in our crops and ate them for dinner. We had so many raspberry bushes that my father would freeze bags of them and use them in fruit shakes, cobblers and other desserts.
My Eastern European heritage is quite innovative because of the amount of times we've had to survive with nothing.
My mother told me that having your own veggies, whenever you need them, is convenient and cheaper in the long run. And like playing with tarot, I am quite good at it, without much fancy equipment. While I have failed to get my outdoor summer garden started (fibro has been keeping me down and I am still working on it), I am excited about this year.
Why, you ask?
I actually have a few things to plant!
I have a carrot, two kind of lettuce and a flower that Calvin gave me for Mother's Day last year. After I pull up the natural garden I had last year (for the bees), I plan to uproot all of them and transplant the ones I have grown indoors. Soon, I am planning to start another plant. I think a tomato or cucumber would compliment the garden.
It does not have to be a huge plot. Like chronic illness, I think I do what I can to make it easier. My mother-in-law has an indoor greenhouse in her office and different variants outdoors in the summer. My mother always had a yard plot. So did my grandmother and her parents. A few pots work for me when I can't stick my hands in the soil.
I also think of this.
My zodiac sign is Taurus, the bull. In the pagan beliefs, there are four/five elements, depending on what you believe in (air, earth, fire, water and spirit) and each zodiac is associated to four of the elements (sans spirit). Taurus is an earth element and described as loyal, stubborn and down-to-earth.
Coincidence? Maybe. But I don't believe in them. When you believe in yourself, knowing the divine in within you daily, anything is possible.
Taking care of four plants is enough to wind me, though. They're almost like children. But every morning, I am thrilled to go to my office and check my plants out. Like my son and our fur babies, I marvel at their growth, what they did and see if I need to do something different to nurture them properly.
Namaste, everyone. Have a great day!
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