Hopeful Gardening

Site of our CDC Belleville Community Garden Bed

So many 60's musicians have shuffled off to Rock and Roll Heaven in the past 24 months -- often in their 60's -- that hearing of one who was merely injured is a relief.  Brian May, the guitarist for the band Queen (actually formed in 1970) over-shared this past week that he “managed to rip my Gluteus Maximus to shreds in a moment of over-enthusiastic gardening.” Yikes! of course he deigned not to give us the gory details after piquing our horror. 

Now that millions of pandemic hermits have learned how to bake bread the next trend seems to be gardening. Fortunately both are excellent endeavours. Whether it's flowers or vegetables, gardening is an earthy, life-giving pursuit. Veggie gardening can bring both deep satisfaction and a full stomach. 

It's a relief to hear that many municipalities have decided to open up community gardens as long as the participants maintain appropriate physical distance. We have three raised vegetable beds in our backyard and this year we will also tend a bed in a nearby municipal garden. They have already shared the distancing Ten Commandments, which shouldn't be too much of a challenge. 



Sudbury Garden-starter packets

In some places these pandemic gardens are being referred to as Victory gardens, a reminder that during WW2 many people grew their own produce as part of the war effort. I like that in Sudbury vegetable garden starter kits are being distributed for free through the Little Free Libraries on streets throughout the city. 

The Christian scriptures begin in a garden (Genesis) and end in one (Revelation). Jesus prayed in a garden before his arrest and crucifixion, and was mistaken for a gardener on Resurrection morning. What more evidence and endorsement do we need for this sacred enterprise? 

For years part of Ruth's Mother's Day gift would be a garden implement or gift certificate to a nursery. I was always a bit hesitant but she insisted that this was what she wanted. I've turned over the soil in our beds, and she's already been planting the hardy stuff, so we live in hope!