A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.
—May Sarton
Maybe that’s why I love gardening so much. A metaphor for life. My life. As a child, I loved my father’s gardens. The fall was beautiful, the beds were filled with chrysanthemums, his favourite. This year as a retiree, gardening has become less of a pretty hobby ( can we say only flowers) and become a passion.
After my second retirement, I was talked into doing a maternity leave at our local food bank. When resource development is your gig , you have to finely craft your message and marketing. You need to really understand what you will be talking about. I learned quickly about food security. This has turned me into a passionate “farmer”! ….the funny thing is…. when I graduated high school I wanted to hitchhike across Europe looking for a pastoral lifestyle to embrace.
So today I have the pastoral lifestyle and the means to learn to produce from my space. What fun.
I have added a greenhouse, and an indoor area for starting seed early, built large raised beds as well as rototilled the back area by the creek to plant potatoes. I am now channelling my Irish ancestors and tilling a very large potato crop. I have over 60 plants yielding 2.2 to 6 kilo each. Never one to embrace moderation I over planted seeds inside and now have 30 tomato plants, 20 pepper plants, and enough squash plants to make my neighbors run for cover. I asked friends to come and shop for free in my greenhouse.
So far I have put squash out too early, we had a light frost. The potato patch is huge and now that the plants are up I know I will have more that we can eat; potatoes. I have squash planted everywhere. I am counting on global warming to help all my tomato and pepper plants! I am not sure how to companion plant…will learn as I go. I am putting this year down to a “learning curve” what works, what doesn’t , and how to fix it. Just like my life.
I still do love the flowers, and natural garden, like hope it is enduring.
Amazed With Mystery 
The farmer is the man (or woman in your case) – just ask Pete Seeger. Love this. Looking forward to watching it grow! We are missing the sun and heat here – slow start but fingers crossed.
We are missing the heat as well. Great start in April and the beginning of May and now it is cold and rainy. I won’t complain because it’s is better going forward to fire season. The new greenhouse will make a big difference. I can move plants back in there. I am proud I grew it all from seed.