Inbetween the rain drops and the cold weather, we're preparing our garden for planting. there is something so hopeful in this project. It is the reconnection with the earth and the hope that spring will be here very soon.
While growing up, my family had a huge garden, almost verging on a farm. A couple of years after I was married and living in Pennsylvania, I remember digging up the entire backyard to put in a begetable garden like the one in my childhood memeory. Wow, what a lot of work! Weeding, handwatering, ….weeding,weeding, and yet more weeding. All of these efforts produced very little yield. To say I was discouraged was an understatement.
It was around this time that I met this lovely French woman who introduced me to the term potager or kitchen garden. Kitchen gardens are often times in raised beds or in enclosed garden spaces. She really was more like my gardening angel. We took fieldtrips to the Rodale tests gardens. We made compost, I learned what to plant when and when to plant what. That year I had a great harvest and have been kitchen gardening ever since.
This is in Versaille France. Thank god I don't have to weed that.
Every year I go through my favorite seed catalogs including seeds of change, an organic seed company and I plan my garden. And then the moment arrives when I re-enter the garden. There is a moment when I distinctly feel the rhythm of the garden starting again. It is my annual marker that it's to reawaken.
A Place Like This 
Leave a comment