My Country Garden

I'm not sure what makes a garden a country garden, apart from the fact that it's not in town but that's what I choose to call it.  I suspect that most people expect something much bigger when they see the words "country garden" but I am always amazed at how much food comes out of my two 8' X 8' plots.  Last year I had only one raised garden and that kept us in fresh veggies for a good part of the summer.

Last year's garden was actually an experiment on my part.  Years ago, when we lived in town, I had a fairly large garden and, due to my increasing pain levels, chose to make it smaller and smaller and finally to quit gardening all together.  My husband tilled the remaining piece that we had not sown to grass once or twice each year to keep it weed free and I sat on the deck and wished I could still do all the things I used to.

I finally learned to be more grateful for all that I can do and focus less on the little that I can't and was able to put gardening out of my mind for a while.  When we moved out here we knew that the soil on this country mile was almost pure sand, so I didn't even think of gardening ... at least not for a while.

And then one fine summer's day about three years ago, we were out for a quad ride and I, on the back of the machine, was doing what I always like to do, checking out people's yards, flower beds and gardens.  In some areas of our neighbourhood, the soil was obviously quite fertile, as I saw several flourishing vegetable gardens and some lovely flowers, not in pots as most of mine in our yard were.  I had also begun experimenting with growing tomatoes, beans, and peas in large pots.

I was feeling much better in general, having learned to respect my physical limitations and care for myself better than I knew how to years earlier, and so my mind had begun to dwell longingly once more on the delights of a small vegetable garden.  And then, that day on the quad, I saw the perfect solution to our lack-of-soil dilemma.

A very sandy yard we passed by had three lush vegetable gardens, right on the sand!  The residents had built raised garden beds using railway ties to frame them and then filled them with rich topsoil.  They had corn six-feet tall, one whole bed filled with potatoes, and a third larger garden with a variety of other vegetables.  I wanted to stop on the spot, ring the doorbell, and talk to the people about how it worked for them and what they recommended.

I talked about those gardens for weeks but Garry was leery, remembering how difficult it had been for me the last time I tried keeping up with the weeding, watering, and harvesting of my in-town garden.  He advised me to forget it and I tried to do just that.  But I kept thinking about how to keep it small enough that I could manage it and still get a decent amount of food out of it.  I was raising food for two or three people now, I reasoned; I wouldn't need as large a garden as it took to feed six of us years ago, with four of them hungry, growing teenagers.  Something much smaller would be perfect.

It took a little while but I managed to  convince Garry that I could handle a scaled-down garden.  Once he got in on the act, things went quickly and last summer we built the little garden of my dreams and it was a smashing success.  We used garden ties, even more attractive than railway ties, I think, and built it in the sunny area in the middle of our turn-around.  It wasn't too far from the house but far enough that it was outside the range of our dogs' security system; they can't get into it to dig and mess up my hard work.

Here's a shot of garden number one:

So tasty was our produce from this first experiment (there's nothing quite as good as fresh, home-grown peas or beans) that Kate and I soon decided we wanted to grow more, more variety and enough to freeze for the winter.

This time I didn't have to persuade nearly as much to get a second garden, the same size as the first one we built, especially since Kate promised to help if it proved to be a little too much for me.  Of course, I never got to find out if I could handle both, as Kate promptly fell in love with gardening and took such pride in keeping them neat and weed-free that I feel like I have my own private gardener.  Apart from picking lettuce, spinach, and chives for a salad a few times a week, I have done very little work in either garden since I planted them.

Here's a shot of the new garden, also pristine and flourishing, thanks to all Kate's hard work:

With Kate doing a lot of the hard work, I'm saving my energy for cooking and preserving all the yummy food that we'll soon be harvesting.

Gardening is good for the soul, don't you think?  There's something so honest and real about tilling the soil and nourishing the plants and seedlings to reap food for our bodies' strength.  I think it's part of how how God intended us to live and my country mile is giving me a chance to reconnect with the gardener in my soul.