For those that know me well, you know that I have a knack for working in a garden. I enjoy getting things to grow, planting veggies, flowers, love it all...the work, the movement, the therapy really it provides me. I really have liked it all along. When I was growing up I was the one making sure we had flowers planted outside the house, I recall a photo of when I was around 18 putting things in the ground.
In my adult life when I was in Nashville I tried to share my love of gardening with a few plant exchanges--which worked out very well mind you! People got loads of new plants to share plus a glass or two of lemonade. Then in Kansas my garden truly was my therapy. In late 2008 and early 2009 I was going through a difficult time. When I got the opportunity to have a garden plot in the community garden, I jumped at it and was excited to begin digging in the dirt, even if it was a bit late in the season to start. It gave me the outlet to put my emotions into something positive instead of drowning myself in sorrow.
The following spring and summer my new larger plot flourished. Lots of veggies and lots of meeting and sharing with folks in the community garden. It was a great way to grow my own food, work off some calories and spend some quality time outside. Plus I shared my harvest with friends and neighbors and supplied myself and others with food well up till Thanksgiving.
Living here in the dessert in Qatar has made it difficult to fully enjoy this and I am truly craving it now. I was excited to find in my own building this week a book on extreme gardening. I understood then why the pepper plants I had inherited from a colleague are struggling in this heat (which was not a surprise) and provided me a bunch of ideas to try out in the coming months. Coming across this book reminded me of something I haven't felt I had the opportunity to do but now maybe I can figure out a few ideas to keep my therapy and sense of community and sharing going.
(The photo is actually from my garden plot in KS from the summer of 2010. Flowers enjoying the KS sun and heat.)
In my adult life when I was in Nashville I tried to share my love of gardening with a few plant exchanges--which worked out very well mind you! People got loads of new plants to share plus a glass or two of lemonade. Then in Kansas my garden truly was my therapy. In late 2008 and early 2009 I was going through a difficult time. When I got the opportunity to have a garden plot in the community garden, I jumped at it and was excited to begin digging in the dirt, even if it was a bit late in the season to start. It gave me the outlet to put my emotions into something positive instead of drowning myself in sorrow.
The following spring and summer my new larger plot flourished. Lots of veggies and lots of meeting and sharing with folks in the community garden. It was a great way to grow my own food, work off some calories and spend some quality time outside. Plus I shared my harvest with friends and neighbors and supplied myself and others with food well up till Thanksgiving.
(The photo is actually from my garden plot in KS from the summer of 2010. Flowers enjoying the KS sun and heat.)
