OUR VEGGIE GARDEN

One of my favourite places on earth is the Vegetable Garden in our backyard. It is a small veggie garden, with only a few things growing there in each season, but it is a testament to the changes of the year. 

WINTER

The garden seems bare on the surface, and devoid of colour. The artichoke plant produces a few blooms of prickly silver, and the dill and other herbs are still growing. But under the dirt is a treasure trove of potatoes and yams: purple and tiny white orbs, alongside red and yellow gems. The branches of the raspberry bushes look like thin whips, all crackled and dry. 

SPRING

There are pansies growing between the strawberry leaves, and small shoots of spring onion are sprouting through the dirt. In the glasshouse, the cold and bare vines of winter are starting to grow leaves. Everything is flowers - the raspberries, the strawberries, the chives and the gooseberries.

SUMMER

The strawberries are ripe and bumblebees trail lazily between the purple artichoke flowers. There is an abundance of gooseberries, so that the thorny arms of the bushes droop low under their burden. The red of the rhubarb is peeking through green leaves, and brightly coloured stalks of chard shine in the sun. 

AUTUMN

The raspberries have arrived, and I spend my days atop the water tanks, picking them and eating them then and there. Over in the field the hazelnuts are falling, and dad is whistling to the dogs as he picks them from the ground. The vines in the glasshouse are bearing small, sour grapes. All the gooseberries are gone, stolen by the birds, and the earth readies itself for winter.

SNOW WHITE & ROSE RED

“THERE was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white and the other Rose-red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful, as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her house-work, or read to her when there was nothing to do.”

— Grimms' Fairy Tales - Snow White and Rose Red

So begins the tale of Snow White and Rose Red, a story about being kind to all beings - animals, dwarfs, people, and even your little sister. The story, recorded by the brothers Grimm from an old German folktale, tells of two young sisters who encounter talking bears and grumpy dwarfs. It teaches us to be patient, to be kind even to those who are ungrateful, and to appreciate the efforts of others. Moreover, the story is beautifully written, and weaves a tale of enchantment, conjuring up images of small cottages, copper kettles, spinning wheels, and friendly woodland animals.

“They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew.”

— Grimms' Fairy Tales - Snow White and Rose Red

FLOWERBEDS

After the dead of winter, there is a section of the Botanical Gardens that awakens and lets forth small crocuses, yellow daffodil blooms, and the pink petals of the magnolia tree. In the midst of that section is a corridor of cherry blossom. I like to go there and sit and think in the flowerbeds.

“During the summer, I set up
a throne and a luxurious bed
amidst rose trees on the mountain
of myrrh and the hill of frankincense ”

— MEDIEVAL HEBREW POEM IN STROPHIC FORM