I live downtown in a booming resort & vacation destination in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. Out in the 'burbs for many years, I now love living near the 'happenings' & waterfront. Cycling & walking everywhere, I have no desire to return to suburbia with it's long drives into town.
Spring has turned to summer.
I have missed my garden. So this spring I got involved with the community garden across the street! How lucky am I?!
I've just come in with a basket of healthy organic mixed green things for dinner. They are so fresh & beautiful they make me smile & I hesitate to eat them! But I do, thankful for the amazing bright to dark greens, reds, even purplish tones, curling, serrated leaf forms & the tender green pea tops with irresistibly happy curling tendrils. Yes, the tender growth of pea plants are not only healthy & edible, but delicious!
I've been harvesting the greens every day for 8 weeks & I react with the same delight every time.
I volunteered to work the compost. People tend to find it a puzzling mystery! It is until you understand how it works. I love compost. It's magic. When it's layered just right, a series of amazingly magical processes & reactions occur. It can reach temperatures up to 160' producing a core of ash.
In a few weeks tended carefully, it is the GOLD of the garden, making the earth rich to grow the beautiful tender green things.
The wonderful thing about growing food close to where you live is not only the freshness & nutrition, but also that it is environmentally friendly. It requires less or no fuel. The only fuel I burn back & forth to my garden is my own body fuel - no emmisions!!
During a trip to Cuba in December, I took a bus tour around Havana. I was thrilled to see their beautiful city gardens everywhere. They are conscious about growing food accessible to residential areas, possibly because they are very poor, but it makes a lot of sense alround. Cuba is lush green & they are great gardeners.
Support &/or grow city gardens. Buy as near to home as possible. It benefits us in many ways. http://activerain.com/groups/gardening
"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." -- Albert Einstein
Deborah Pearce owner and webmaster of LIVING SPACES is a Kelowna Business Woman, established with locals and internationals in various aspects of Interiors, Art, and Business for over 20 years. The contact link at Living Spaces website may be used for service enquiries. Also find over 100 ARTICLES on Staging, Art and Interiors.
Deborah's blog frequently features interior design, real estate, community, environmental, internet, art and human interests.
;)
Links;)
Tags (Tag Cloud);)
Archives
Deborah, I used to be able to grow anything, now I have a difficult time getting even my flowers up. I'm not sure if it's ME or the LAND that's changed, maybe both :( But I had a garden years ago and loved working on it more, I think, then actually eating it. Connecting with the land, I suppose. Thanks for a lovely post.