Today’s prompt from Nablopomo is – When or where do you feel most like yourself?
At first I was tempted to say “no where” and that made me feel sad momentarily. Then I remembered I do have a place and an activity where I feel the most me. A place where I feel like I belong; where my knowledge and passion come together and actually have results. I am most me in my garden.
When I first started gardening I tried to do it all – flowers, bushes, trees, among other things and a vegetable garden. A few droughts and a broken down well line made watering all my new plantings almost impossible. It killed my desire to baby floral plantings. There were a few shade gardens where I have my prized hostas that have survived through the years. They bring me joy because they are right up next to the house and we can hummingbirds feed from the flowers and catch mosquitoes with no more effort than looking out the window. The coral bells in between the hostas bloom early and bring the little birds to feed sooner in the season.
I shifted most of my efforts to vegetable gardening almost solely for the past three years. Every piece of scrap wood, old fence post and giant nail I could find tucked away in our outbuildings from the previous owner went into building raised garden beds… all…. by… my… self. My husband hates them because he says they’re ugly. But they were FREE and hiding behind the outbuilding so who the heck is going to see them anyway. When everything is fully grown and in bloom no one would give a rat’s patootie what the wood underneath the plants looks like. Don’t get me wrong I so want to get actual cedar or even nice 8x12x2 pine boards to put together deeper raised beds, but for now I HAVE A GARDEN!!!!
I have a compost heap and even a vermicompost, wintersow and start seeds indoors. It’s a science and I love it. I just recently had volunteer tomatoes and strawberry plants and some mystery plant pop up in a repotted basil plant’s pot. To someone else it may seem silly but to see them popping up gave me such joy. It was amazing to me that these seeds were living in the vermicompost “condo” for months freezing cold. As soon as they got water and sunlight they burst to life and it made my heart soar.
I love being in the garden with my girls because I can teach them about our Creator. They ask me questions about the soil, the plants, fertilizing, watering, flowering and everything else. They each take their little trowel and dig into soil looking for earthworms. It’s so funny to see the joy they get out of feeling the worms squirm on their hands. They have their own garden where they get to choose what to grow and are in charge of watering and harvesting. So they get to learn about science, conservation, and reusing. Best of all they get to hang out with me outside.
So, yes, I feel the most ME when I’m elbow deep in the dirt in my vegetable garden.
Where do you feel the most yourself?
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
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