Gardening

Learning to garden is literally opening up a whole new world that has existed right under my nose without my knowledge.  Sure, we all see plants around us whether they are herbs, flowers, shrubs, or trees, but for me it wasn't until I recently picked up gardening that I realized just how magical they can be.  I realize using the word magical there probably made me sound like a nutty hippie, which is not what I meant at all.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that gardening has deepened my sense of wonder in the world around me.  By wonder I don't mean to imply some enigmatic sense of spirituality I share with the hummingbirds but a genuine curiosity which refuses to be sated.  It makes me think of that saying you often hear associated with learning about wine, the more you learn the more you realize you know nothing...or something like that.

My boyfriend Derrick and I started gardening when we moved in together a year and a half ago.  We had humble beginnings, and by this I mean we bought a tiny basil plant from the grocery store which we tended on the kitchen counter of our apartment.  We loving watered the little plant which we had named Basil Hayden Christiansen.  We wanted to put little potted plants all around our patio and we even bought organic potting soil in preparation.  Then my dad died.

Things changed, and they changed fast.  I was spending more and more time at my dad's house as his health rapidly declined from ill, to hospice, to the day that he passed away.  Eventually I began moving my stuff from the apartment to my dad's house and Derrick slowly followed suit as his classes let out for the summer. Most of that summer I spent in the thralls of grief; I was numbly navigating what felt like a new life.  Although I did live in this house with my dad for a few years, what has helped it feel the most like home (apart from Derrick being here) has been the work we've done fixing it up.  My dad loved to garden.  When I say this I mean it more than just how a lot of middle-aged men fancy a tomato garden.  My dad was really passionate about gardening.  His tomatoes made appearances on caprese sandwiches at his favorite local pub.  His lettuces, lemons, beets, and peppers were all hits at the farmer's markets.  Unfortunately, when my dad got sick the backyard became overgrown weeds and the beets swelled to the size of child's head.  At first, Derrick and I just began by weeding to get the yard to look like less of a pitiful mess.  Then we started watering and trimming back the overgrown plants which were already there. Considering we managed to revive quite a few hopeless looking specimens and part of the estate which was left to me included a box of my dad's seeds, it seemed that next it was only logical to try sowing a few of our own seeds.

I know comparing anything to life is pretty cliché, but I really feel like for me this is apt given how sentimental the analogy is.  Through gardening we experience an almost daily dose of frustrations, and nothing compares to receiving felicitations on our budding green thumbs.

As we continue to learn together about gardening and life I will chronicle my experiences right here.