"Who does gardening dressed like that?" was the question posed by my wife Ruth this weekend.
It was in response to the film footage of Michelle Obama, the US president's wife, as she stuck a spade in the sod of the White House lawn. She is creating a vegetable garden as an encouragement for Americans to grow their own greens and eat healthily. The Obama's certainly don't need to plants spuds and beans to get by. And Michelle won't be wearing that outfit in the garden for long if she really plans to dig in earnest.
Why not though? During the Great Depression many people survived by using available backyard space for vegetables and the Victory Gardens of WWII were strongly encouraged. Somehow we have got away from growing our own food, unless you happen to be from a Portuguese or Italian background. Older immigrants from those two countries have an amazing ability to make gardens flourish. A silver lining of the economic downturn may be that we wake up to the importance of urban/suburban gardening instead of depending on products shipped to us from other countries.
There is something truly spiritual about rooting around in the dirt and the nudge to acknowledge this may be another important byproduct of our current mess. In his lovely little book The Fragrance of God Vigen Guroian, who is from the Orthodox tradition, reflects of the meaning of gardening. He says that where spirit and earth mix, God and humans meet. We are apprentices of the Master Gardener. Good thoughts.
I know that a number of readers have flower gardens. Any plans to grow veggies this year?
My husband's family grew a huge vegetable garden every year while he was growing up. Before meeting my mother-in-law I would have had a hard time even identitfying most vegetables. I can't say I love gardening, but given some yard space I would give it a try. I do enjoy cooking and what always strikes me as irristable are the vibrant colors of vegetables when you really stop and pay attention.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is the gardener in our family, he always grows vegetables, plus lots of flowers. I enjoy both.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get started in the garden once again.When it comes to flowers , it's the amazing vibrancy and variety of their colours that excite me. I'll probably do the tomatoes, beans, onions and herbs as usual. Nothing like the huge garden my grandmother had in order to feed her family throughout the year.Canning, pickling, preserving...so much work!When we first married 34 years ago I had a big vegetable garden and tried to reproduce some of Granny's favourite recipes. My enthusiasm didn't last long. They were a different breed, those women of my grandmother's era!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ruth. Michelle Obama's gardening outfit is hardly suitable. Where are her jeans,plaid shirt and duckies?!
ReplyDeleteI have always had flowers but never enough space for veggies. WE have that space now and I plan to do some veggies this summer. I have done tomatoes in pots with success. There are so many ways to get around space issures now. You can even buy shares in plots of land to grow your own veggies if you don't have the space. Can't wait to get started!
ReplyDeleteThanks for these responses. It's good to know that readers will have dirt under their fingernails this summer!
ReplyDeleteBowmanville does have an organic community garden adjacent to the older highschool. We hoped to get a plot to augment what we have in the backyard. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on perspective) the plots are all spoken for this year. The organizer did say she would help start a new garden if enough people were interested...
I planted by first veggie garden last year. Unfortunately, I wasn't very successful. It was very dry last year, and it was my first garden. I actually have never enjoyed gardening, but last year I realized that it was flowers that I didn't enjoy gardening. I loved the vegetable garden experience. I will be trying it again this year.
ReplyDeleteIf we had known, Deb, we could have exported some H2O from Ontario's very wet summer.
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