The simplicity files: One seed at a time
KAMLOOPS — I am breaking the rules of local gardening. It is still April yet the patch of garden in the backyard is all dug up, ready to be seeded. I open the big bag of compost manure and spread it all over, a wish for good luck in each handful that I mix with the dusty soil. The smell is thick and heavy and there’s a promise of garden bounty in each black blob I break and spread around.
I remove long couch grass roots as I comb through the dirt, yet again, and I will keep on doing that all summer. Then comes the seeding. One hand forms the dirt gully, the other rains seeds into them: carrot, basil, thyme, and kale. Small nests for beans and pumpkin.
My little guy places peas in a row close to the wooden lattice, carefully covering each with a thin layer of dirt. Green shoots will soon weave their slenderness through the crisscross design. Last year’s kale is testament to resilience and so is the lavender; the small patch of garlic and a lone green onion too. The long winter had nothing on them.
It’s a ritual I love and return to every year. If I close my eyes I am eight and watching my Dad planting the garden. He would always explain where everything goes and why, and he would tell stories; I could never have enough. By the time evening was setting, I felt like the world had been put in beautiful order, completed with my Mom walking to the garden to let us know dinner was set.