Anastasia Abboud
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Garden Warrior
Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.
​-- Gibran Khalil Gibran

Garden Therapy

2/10/2022

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I needed a quiet, restful day. Last week, my father-in-law, the only father I’ve had for forty years, passed away. May his sweet, gardener’s soul rest in peace. My husband and his siblings left for his funeral in Lebanon, a sad, rushed, necessary trip. The rest of us stayed home.
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The weather was glorious, the sort of winter day that harkens of early spring. Encouraged, I perused a seed catalog with my morning coffee, considered our plan to enlarge the raised beds, already underway, and ordered a few packets. Of course. My favorite source: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds 

I went for a bike ride under a bright, blue sky. When I returned home, I changed into my overalls and got ready to work in the garden. Mich, my sister-in-heart, stopped by for a while. We chatted, and she made me very happy by accepting some homegrown beets. I planted a few varieties this year and they all came up – Candy Cane, Golden, and Detroit Dark.

I then set to work/play. I cleared some perimeter weeds, worked in the welcoming garden, and found a home for some summer snowflakes we had to move when we extended the raised beds along the fence. I think I’ve decided that I really don’t want the lawn guys to come anymore. They’ve been careless lately -- things have been broken -- and they haven’t been keeping up with the few tasks they have in winter. We don’t have much lawn to mow, and they tend to neglect both the shrubs and the edging.

Anyway, I watered a few things and filled the bird bath. At first, I simply enjoyed the sounds of the outdoors. I can't say I hear only nature at that time of day. I heard children playing outside and golfers talking and laughing as well as birds twittering in the trees and shrubs. But after a little while, I began listening to podcasts. A favorite when gardening or, really, at any time, is The Daily Gardener with Jennifer Ebeling. Another is Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden. I had plenty of time to enjoy both.

I think my favorite part of this afternoon was transplanting the summer snowflakes, Leucojum Aestevum, "Gravetye Giant". It felt like a small victory. They are among my favorite flowers and were almost lost, crushed under the new beds because I almost forgot to move them. I retrieved them in the eleventh hour.
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By the time I’d cleaned up my scattered messes and put my garden tools away, I felt restored.
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Be it large or small or smaller still, may your garden be a sanctuary for you.
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For Love of Garden

2/1/2022

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I'm so pleased! This past weekend, we were finally able to work in our garden. The old, worn out beds are gone and Joseph's sturdily built, lined beds have replaced them. We added a couple of new ones, too, and now have approximately 90 square feet of new and renewed space. More than half of this area is shady, especially in winter, but I still hope to fill the boxes mostly with herbs.

We would like to rebuild and enlarge another raised bed before we have the soil delivered. 
There will be a lot of hopeful planning and fantasizing over seed catalogs this month and probably a few trips to some area nurseries.

I think it's quite appropriate, especially for me, that during this month of candy hearts and roses, I might be spending a lot of time in my garden. We love what we love!

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    Our Garden

    For years, my husband and I worked at creating a series of gardens on our four-acre lot in a rural, Texas subdivision west of Houston. I have to say, it was a fantastic experience. Now, I have a pocket garden on a golf course.

    And I am busier than ever. Gardening in southeast Texas can be brutal.

    I plot and plan. I work under dangerous conditions. I am frequently under assault. At times, I might drop everything and run for cover. I strive to work towards the greater good.  


    I plan my garden beds and seasonal rotations, but I also know to expect the unexpected -- from the weather, nature, even, perhaps especially, from myself.

    Heat, humidity, and potentially disease-carrying mosquitoes are problems for more than half the year and a dangerous combination in summer. That’s to say nothing of fire ants and other biting, stinging insects.

    Snakes, too, although they only make a rare appearance in my little garden. Poison ivy and oak love it here and birds sow both generously.

    Speaking of unwelcome plants, we have some seriously persistent, aggressive weeds like Bermuda grass and nutsedge.


    Despite some uncomfortable conditions, I feel very protective of the wild in my garden. It’s important to know friend from foe, for example, venomous from nonvenomous snakes and even then, it’s often not necessary to engage.

    As for the bugs, it is not fine with us to hurt the good with the bad. Pesticides are banned. So are herbicides. Our beds, whether food or ornamental, are organic. And while our garden isn’t entirely native, we do have plenty of native plants that please the local wildlife as well as ourselves.


    I’ve learned that a small garden is as much a balm to the soul as a large one and can keep the gardener just as busy.

    It took me a while to adjust, but I love it. While every garden is different, they all offer challenges, pleasures, time with nature.   Much like people, they have their good days and bad days, high seasons and low; and they can all be fun and beautiful if you love them enough.  

      

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