Dreams In The Mailbox

Around this time of the year, back when I was a budding new gardener, February was a very important month to me. That was the month when the seed catalogs came out. I would wait impatiently, day after day, as the mailman came and went, until that day when the first one hit my mailbox. Then I would withdraw into my cozy little home on a cold winter day with a hot cup of tea, my seed catalog, and dreams of what I could grow if I just had the right seeds, the right soil, the right light, and lots of luck. In my mind's eye, I saw a lush garden with beautiful flowers, healthy vegetables, aromatic herbs, surrounded by birds and insects who thought they had found heaven on earth, as had I. That was my dream.

Fast forward to reality. If I was lucky and had a good year, maybe half of that would come true. What I knew about gardening when I first started would have fit on a postage stamp, and the rest I learned, painfully at times, by trial and error. I learned what I was good at, what I wasn't good at, what would grow up here in the cold, unpredictable northeast where I lived, and what wouldn't. Even so, I was proud of every little sprout and bud that survived. It was like I had found a working relationship with Mother Nature and together we could create something beautiful.

It's been many years since I had that garden. I no longer get seed catalogs in the mail. It has taken me three years to get my tiny, tabletop garden into any kind of shape but I have to say that what I have managed to create is hanging in there despite our harsh winters thanks to a grow light, lots of love, and creating an  ecosystem that works for them:

Gardening has taught me many things about life over the years. It has taught me that, as Henry David Thoreau said, if you have faith in a seed, it it will grow. When we plant seeds of hope, love, compassion, generosity, and faith, and if we water them with love and attention, what is meant to grow, will grow, and it will be all the stronger and more beautiful for our efforts. I may not be able to grown roses and apple trees in my tiny garden, but I can grow herbs that feed my body, and plants that feed my soul. Not a bad return on my investment if I do say so myself!

And so it is.