When I was a very young child I would sit in the garden and eat dirt with a spoon from my Mom’s kitchen. My mother freaked and called my grandmother who told my Mom not to worry, I was just missing some minerals in my diet.
That must be when it started; my love for the dirt and how amazing I feel when I am connected to it. My father always had a garden, until later years. There was nothing like fresh strawberries from our backyard in the spring or a tomato right off the vine in late summer. After the convenience of some grocery stores in the area, my Dad stopped gardening. We missed the garden, but it is a lot of work, so I understood why my Dad opted to go to the grocery store.
Sadly, my Mom passed away in 1990 and my Dad in 2012. I live in Ontario, Canada and my siblings and I have a summer home in Prince Edward Island. The last fall I was there with my Dad, he had mentioned he wanted to grow a garden the following year. He had bought a 1957 Farmall Cub tractor earlier that year and wanted to use it to plow the garden. He was not well that last fall and so was not able to operate the tractor, so instead I asked my cousin to help me with the tractor and show me how to do it. He did show me how to operate it and so I used the tractor to create our garden. Now every year one of us takes a trip to PEI in June to plant the garden so that we have fresh vegies when we are there on vacation in August. I select seeds and seedlings that are earlier varieties. The seeds are also non-GMO and the garden is organic. We don’t always get to take advantage of the full on harvest in the fall, but we have lots of neighbors that do. The garden is sort of a community project, when we can’t be there, we have neighbors that drop in to water it, weed it and use whatever is ready for picking. It has changed our lives. When we return from the beach, someone takes a trip to the garden to gather herbs, beans, carrots, beets and/or lettuces for our dinner. We eat well there and even though we are on vacation, we manage to stay the course with healthy fresh food.
Where there’s a will there’s a way. When I first told family members and some friends that I wanted to proceed with my Dad’s garden, I heard a lot of negative comments and was told I would not be able to have a garden at a seasonal home. I went ahead anyways and with the help of our dear friends and neighbors we are able to plant a wonderful healthy organic garden every spring!
Author
Jane is a 30 year banking professional that loves gardening and rubber boots. She hopes to spend a lot more time digging, planting, growing and harvesting when she retires in a few years. She would love to have your feedback so please leave a comment.