– Excitement on the Vernal Equinox –
When I met Ela and moved to Poland, I knew that my days of hard-core adventure were over. And I was happy with my decision; I’m lucky to have lived this long. Too many times, the combination of my wild imagination and the irrational belief that I can do what I think I can do has led me to the brink of disaster.
But I still have an unquenchable desire for adventure in my life. I am not the kind of person who can live the same things for seventy years and consider it a life well lived.
Different Kind of Adventure
What to do? If one takes the ‘daring’ and ‘risky’ out of an activity, all that left to define the adventure is ‘unusual’ or ‘exciting’. In the (almost) two years since the change, I have experimented with the new definition.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know we travel quite a bit. Sometimes on our own, sometimes with our happy-go-lucky bus group… and it’s great. A lot less stressful and physically demanding than my previous lives, and easier to be spontaneous. We manage a road trip couple or three months.
I started looking for something more frequent… to deliver that daily buzz. I often tout one of the great benefits of embracing adventure in your life is that it brings happiness into your daily existence. Thinking about the proposed venture, imagining the obstacles , and planning your way around them… all those things make day-to-day living more meaningful. Even before the adventure takes place.
Adventure in the Yard
Much to my surprise, I found my new adventure in something I had previously considered an activity for the elderly – gardening. It was, I thought, something sedentary and slow… about as exciting as mowing the lawn. But when I moved to Poland and sat in the comfort of Ela’s garden, it reminded me in some ways of my time in the wilderness. It seemed to me an urban wilderness, with the foliage, the flowers, the birds and bees that came to enjoy it. And during my first summer in Strzelin, I saw first-hand how much work went into creating her adventure in the yard. And gardening with Ela was certainly NOT sedentary or slow.
Sitting through the following winter, I found myself getting antsy for something physical to do. The weather in Silesia is a lot like it is in Canada; we’re at the same latitude as Calgary, so it’s cold and windy and wet for a long time. Even though March was a couple of months before most people started gardening, I decided there were things I could do to prepare for my new adventure in the yard that would get me off my chair and outside arriving home.
Preparing for Adventure
Every adventure starts in the imagination. My goal was as a beginner was simple and achievable; I wanted to contribute to Ela’s ornamental garden. There was nothing to add to her fifteen years of Tender Loving care, but I imagined I could supplement it with a vegetable garden. Since I had no previous experience, I decided it start off with something small. (I advise everyone new to adventure to plan something achievable first; no one summits Everest in their first year as a climber.)
So the first thing I put down on my gardening plan was to build raised beds. If you know me, you know they couldn’t be normal raised beds. No way I’d settle for a few pieces of wood nailed together; that wasn’t exciting enough. I started drawing out my idea for raised beds that would complement the beauty of Ela’s garden.
I sketched and measured to make sure my project was of the appropriate size. I bought the wood, built the boxes, and conditioned the wood with a green impregnating paint that would protect my investment. Then I fancied it up a bit… some yellow paint to brighten the boxes and blend them in with the rest of the garden. Just for fun, I splashed a little purple abstractly with my paintbrush. Long before I put seeds in the ground, I was having fun with my new adventure.
Scaling Adventure Up
Before I started planting, I needed to determine what types of vegetables or fruits I would grow. And I had to learn about those elements and my options for raising them. Just like any adventure, I wanted to customize it. Since my boxes were small, I had very little ground surface. I decided I need to bring the vertical frame so that the vegetables that were able to pick grow upwards instead of out across the limited surface area I had. More planning, more simple construction, and of course more paint for my adventure in the yard.
By the end of March, the framework for my project was built. My excitement for the adventure was growing as was my anticipation for the day. And that is the greatest value in having adventure in your life… what it does to improve your excitement for day-to-day living.
I lined the boxes with black cloth, filled them with dirt, and visualized how I would organize and distribute the seeds I needed for our particular garden. We needed lots of tomatoes and cucumbers (because we eat them almost every day). Since Ela loves to make soups, I pictured rows of carrots, celery, leeks and onions. I sketched out where I’d place those root vegetables in the garden. I suspended heavy string for the vining plants to climb.
Overcoming Obstacles
Like any adventure, there were challenges… obstacles… problems to overcome. And one of the first problems was totally unexpected; the cats in the neighborhood thought I had constructed the greatest litter box in town! Not just our cat, but an army of animals that must have traveled from blocks away to sample the luxury of my massive (and luxurious) litter boxes. Even before I put seeds in the ground, I was blessed with a challenge.
The solution to my problem arrived unexpectedly. That April, Ela and I went on a trip to the coast of the Baltic Sea. We traveled through a quaint coastal little village one of the farms. There was a fishing boat with nets strung around. It gave the homestead a lovely ambience and, in my mind, solved my problem in the garden. When we got back home, I went online and purchased a couple of long black fishing nets and strung them around the vertical framework on my raised beds. Problem solved! No more cat holes in my soil… no one digging except me.
Planning & Preparation Pays Off
When May finally arrived, I had everything ready for my adventure in the yard. The hard work planning and preparing gave me the best chance for success. My tomatoes grew like trees, my cucumbers climbed to create a tapestry in the back half of my boxes. And by the end of the season, my zucchini plant spread out like a fat guy on the couch and took all the available space for himself! Next year, he gets a pot of his own…
Sometimes adventures are a one-off thing; you do them and move on to the next one. But sometimes the adventure leaves an imprint in your life and you continue it year after year and that’s how gardening worked out for me. It’s March now and already I’m outside planning, preparing, and enjoying days in my garden. When most people are still on the couch, I’m repainting the structure and decorating it with chimes and ornamental pots. Even before they actually happen, adventures bring excitement and happiness into your life.
Glad you got into vegetable gardening Pat – I can see the methodical, military mind at work! Growing up on the farm, the vegetable garden, orchard and berry patches were a big part of our farm life. There’s some great books by Elliot Coleman who organic farmed up in Maine. And books on companion planting – what grows well, next to what – and what deters bugs. A small herb garden is worth the effort too!
Duly noted, Mike. I will give the herb garden a try… not much room in my raised beds, but I can set aside a few big pots.
Gardening is a great adventure, science and art. You can learn a lot not only about growing vegetables, flowers or fruits, but also about yourself. I am glad that the garden has become your new passion. Because it is a passion that will bring you joy.