No this is not going to be a religious treatise nor a philosophical tome. Rather, I hope to share some pleasant perspectives I enjoyed as I dug around in the dirt, during the past few weekends. The now famous ‘Polar Vortex” brought near record cold to parts of Canada, including Ottawa. It was long, gray and very chilling, to say the least. As the first inklings of Spring came, most of us embraced the changes with an mcm phone case almost passionate fury.
I got into a real, “Lets make over the whole garden”, mode. I planned to revitalize all that was above ground and outside the house. This included trimming trees to replacing some of the dated and aging wood that surrounded my flower beds. I ordered a cubic yard of earth. This was a first for me, in the past I had earth delivered by the truck load, this is a recent concept. Local garden supply companies now deliver earth in polystyrene bags which contain a cubic yard of earth. The advantage is the earth can be taken from the bag in small increments and dirt mcm iphone 7 case does not scatter all over the driveway.
My first cubic year seemed to disappear as I found many places to use it. So I ordered a second yard. I had started seeds indoors and sprouts were transferred to disposable pots and the race for a charming yard was on. I was able to have the old wood, that surrounded the garden areas,removed by a roofer. He had a truck load of old roof shingles so for $20 he helped me and a earned few pennies for himself.
I am not a committed “greenie”; but, I do not believe in insecticides and weed killers and I also keep a number of my “weeds” as part of the décor. In the front lawn I have a thistle each year. Every year I find a hearty specimen and transplant one to a small area which I have surrounded by broken clay plant pots. All very “De rigueur” if you fancy yourself as an “Artiste”. I saw a nice photo on the internet where a small Dutch village encourages people to plant vegetables among the flowers. So mcm iphone 6 case next to many of my flowers one can find tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. And the list is growing.
The inspiration for the title of this article came while I was labouring away. I realized a feeling of self satisfaction, an almost connection to “Mother earth” as I prepared the garden plot,the lawn, and the trees for another summer. Only this summer it was all revitalized. A nice warm feeling of connection to nature came to me. It was more than just digging and planting. I felt a nice glow of participation in the betterment of my surroundings, in a modest way.
In previous many of my ferns seemed to dry up. I read a bit on the subject and I found that regular watering would alleviate this problem. I vowed to regularly walk about with a hose and take the time to see that water made it to all corners. In the past I would turn on a sprinkler and come back a shot time later, move the sprinkler and continue this pattern. But, I again, had a nice feeling of closer participation as I came closer physically and perhaps in spirit to my “garden” children.
This is not an earth shattering discovery; but, it was a nice warm feeling of participation which made some of the heavy labour seem lighter.
By Dr Michael Pilon
Gardening can be a major chore and to some a difficult obligation in home maintenance. But, after a long winter I felt a renewal of spirit as I toiled in the dirt bringing life back to my yard. From tilling some soil to spreading earth it was a nice feeling, a connection to life.