The Art of Gardening
Maybe some of you can relate to this? You have many interests or talents and you want to do it all but you can’t fit it all in? Not all at once anyways.
I have come to the conclusion that my passions have seasons. I try to convince myself that just because I haven’t painted in a few months or maybe even a year doesn’t mean I am no longer a painter. The advice for those wanting to be serious is to be consistent. I totally get that… I mean, it makes sense. If you are going to get good at something, you need to practise. And the more you do it, the better you get, and then the more you enjoy it and feel excited at your potential. It is all wonderful.
Well, for now, I will just have to be happy focusing on one thing at a time. Being the type of person who throws herself fully into things, I can only handle so many focuses at once. I learned about 5 or 6 years ago that I am an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). HSP’s tend to get overwhelmed more easily as they take in the finer details and pick up on everything around them. They do not find it easy to plan many activities in one day or set about multi-tasking as their method of madness. This post isn’t about HSP but I mention it because realizing this, it freed me to accept I’m not like the 70% who can pile on many things and still cope.
So while I still have a longing to get out my paintbrush, I am happy in the waiting while I pursue other creative avenues.
Three summers ago my husband and I purchased a home here in Saskatoon that came with many perennials, some fruit trees and a large garden space. We found out the first summer that left to it’s own devices it would become a wild backyard. That first year we had managed to plant potatoes… I believe that was about all. But by year two I had schemed a plan, had begun growing seedlings indoors and had my husband building raised boxes with an arched arbour by early spring (still snow on the ground). Well I had no idea what I was doing but had so much fun watching things grow that I was pretty much hooked. The third summer I tried some new things and also used some of the ground as a planting area too (although it was surprisingly hard to get that low to care for them). We bought some lovely bushes too like dogwoods, ninebark and spirea, plus some poplar trees to start adding more regular foliage. I am, after all, from Ontario… I am used to WAY more trees and lush plant growth. That was last summer and I found out that in Saskatchewan there is this thing called DROUGHT! I spent at least an hour every day watering those new bushes and trees. Hoping to add some automated watering systems this year. Last year we did manage to add one large rainwater barrel but then there wasn’t any rain so… yah, we paid a lot to the city last year!
As the so-called pandemic raged on in 2021, the news kept predicting worse and worse outcomes for the world and we found ourselves even MORE interested in growing our own food. But our summers in Saskatoon are so short… so in October 2021 we took a big financial risk and ordered a Greenhouse from Planta. In the cold, we managed to get the metal framework together, mounted on a wood base with rock pebble floor. My husband is very handy! (It was on my list :)) After a long winter of staring at that greenhouse shell, we have completed it (mostly). There are a few little things left to do.
I have become pretty obsessed…. like I said, I dive right into things and go all out. I guess I am typically all or nothing. My hope is that we can finish it with siding, insulation, watering systems, and heater by winter (but it has been a bad year for my design business so it’s not likely). My plan is to extend the season but still take a break from if over winter because it is a lot of work and you have more chance of bugs and disease if you just keep it going all year. I will share my garden plans below with my crazy lists of seedlings and planned purchases. My big focus is to grow the heat-loving plants in there for summer, then add some cooler items towards fall. This year (2022) my hope was for success with watermelon and cucumber. I’m growing greenhouse varieties of bell peppers! The watermelon has gone fairly well but not without issues, as well as the cucumbers and peppers… we were offered an opportunity to fly home to visit my family and being away for two weeks took a toll on the garden and greenhouse. I do not know how farmers do it! It has really given me a new respect for farmers big or small. What an incredibly stressful yet important job, feeding the world!
UPDATE: I had great success with the watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers inside the new greenhouse. I even went away for two weeks and the plants did suffer a bit as their watering schedule and amount changed but we still got fresh, delicious produce to enjoy!
