These days, a wave of excitement about cultivating various plants and vegetables has swept across Canada. Whether in the vast open spaces of land, the cozy backyard gardens, or even the limited confines of balconies, the joy of gardening is palpable.
Even more empowering is that the tools for this green revolution are readily available–anyone can find seeds, seedlings, pot soil, and fertilizers in major grocery stores like Metro, Home Depot, and Canadian Tires.
Here in North America, at this time of year, we see massive landscaping of the surrounding areas of condos, apartment buildings, and houses, replacing plants and soil and fertilizing these soils to ensure the growth of these plants.
People want to use today’s hot weather to plant these seeds, let them grow, and eventually harvest them before the onset of the cold season.
Our apartment building is a hub of gardening activity. Many of our senior residents have a small part of lots near the parking space for their temporary use for planting. Despite their age, they have a youthful enthusiasm to connect with nature by nurturing their plants.
Recently, a dear friend shared a delightful discovery. While tending to her plants, she noticed the myriad shapes of leaves. For years, she believed that leaves were all the same; even in her drawings, they had the same shapes. This newfound appreciation for nature brought her immense joy.
Our contribution to greening the environment is the little garden we put up on the balcony of our apartment overlooking Lake Ontario. We planted some bitter melon tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and other plants.
Oh, it’s an amazing experience seeing these plants bloom right before our eyes. Our bare and lifeless balcony has been transformed into a beautiful little garden.
For the first time in my life, learning that there is a need to know that in some cases, the plants’ seeds have to be grown inside because of the weather outside, and later on, when they become seedlings, that is the time to plant them either on the ground or pots. In some cases, planting those seedlings on the ground is preferable.
It’s also important to know the right timing on when to plant these seeds or seedlings to ensure their growth.
It’s beautiful to see these geraniums bloom throughout the year, so it’s a good idea to plant them in pots and place them indoors so that even in winter, we can still enjoy the greening of our living room.
While writing this piece, another good friend, labour leader Butch Pena, posted a quote on Facebook that says,” When English is compulsory, and agriculture is optional, the country will end up speaking good English on empty stomachs”—Farmer.
This quote is a truism. I remember a time in the late 1960s when many Thai students were studying rice technology at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. At that time, the Philippines was still a rice-exporting country.
Now, it’s the other way around. We are importing rice from Thailand, and most of the country’s rice lands have been converted into housing subdivisions. Somewhere along the way, we failed to sustain our image as a rice-exporting country.
In elementary school, gardening was part of the curriculum. We learned to use our bare hands to plant vegetables. It’s not enough to use our brains; we must be ready to use our bare hands and have some manual dexterity.
Gardening also taught us as youngsters to be patient while waiting for these plants to grow prepared for harvesting. Most of all, we realized firsthand the hard work of putting food on the table.
Planting is a learning process. A friend, Rosario, has taught me that in some cases, we don’t have to buy seeds or seedlings for gardening because some plants’ roots, like mint, strawberry, and Blueberry, go deep into the ground during the winter season and then slowly come out of the ground with the changing of the season or weather.
I’ve learned words like seeds, seedlings, and trellis used in the planting season. I’ve also learned about gardening tools such as shovels, hand forks, and digging forks. Hand gloves are most important because pulling those thorny shrubs without them is difficult.
The funny thing is that only in my senior years have I learned that the word “ nursery” is not confined to a place where babies are taken care of but is also the place where plants are propagated and grown to desired sizes for gardening; one can buy plants, seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, and various kinds of soils in these nurseries set up in some big stores.
Well, what more can I say except that I’m now watering these plants on our balcony while enjoying Lake Ontario’s windy and scenic view.