Raised Beds
An easier way to garden
Hello from Anita!
As I plucked a faded marigold bud, recycling dozens of new seeds into unseasonably warm soil, I realized, gardening isn’t so much about zucchini and basil production. It’s the thrill of spotting an impossibly bright green stalk of asparagus, rising up in a sea of brown, on a chilly spring morning.
Or as Sarah, queen of gardening, describes, she spends lots of time “staring at the dirt”, searching for the tiniest tender seeds to emerge.
The joy is in the tending of our minature Edens.
This spring, I’ve focused on flowers, planting a colorful mix of zinnias in a long double row dreaming ahead of endless cut flowers all summer long, from one little packet of heirloom seeds. I’m still debating where to plant the Amaranth flowers, glamorous “Beloved Brazilian Beauty”apparently these bombshells eventually crowd all the others off the stage.
Raised beds are easier to reach for planting, weeding and harvesting. Once soil is added to fill them, it’s much more manageable to amend with compost.
One Saturday, I set out early for town, in an attempt to get my car inspected. It’s the only day inspections are conducted. My heart sank discovering the parking lot deserted and garage doors shut tight. Another more high strung customer wheeled in, instantly fuming mad, screaming into his cell phone.
I usually don’t get too bent out of shape over this sort of thing. I’ve driven for weeks, dare I say, months (!) without a current registration. I rarely see the sheriff on the back roads and when I do, I wave.
In a groundbreaking study, Stanford psychologist, Laura Carstenson concluded those in the golden years are happier! Yes, you read that right. Once it dawns on us that we don’t live forever, it can change our perspective in positive ways. We tend to live more in the moment, take less notice of the trivial and are more open to reconciliation. That is a scientific study! In short, we don’t give a hoot what other people think!
Gazing out my car window, wondering how to make use of the unplanneround trip to town, I spotted a row of glorious cone shaped moss baskets filled with bright flowers and trailing ivy.
Ambling across the road for a closer look, I got all kinds of insider tips from the creator of those baskets. She’s a professional landscape artist, as it turns out, the greenhouse is her personal workspace and none of the baskets were for sale. However, she shared her secret supplier sources for the healthiest plants, moss and wire baskets.
Instead of waiting for my car to be inspected in a greasy waiting room, I was ushered into the hallowed sanctuary of her fabulous, “closed to the public” greenhouse. She rattled off the names of all the beautiful blooms, some, she’s cultivated for years. She even had succulents growing in holes in the rocks!
With our shared love of flowers, we hit it off instantly.
We kvetched about the county election and kibbitzed over her daughter’s wedding plans. She’s in transition, too. The transition of getting older!
Like me, her joints hurt, her feet are swollen and she can’t hurl a 50 pound bag of potting soil into the trailer like she used to. She’s downsizing her work load to accommodate the change in energy.
Chuck glanced in the mirror at the local WalMart and thought old Sam Elliott was trying to impersonate him. Age hasn’t changed the fact that he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, he’s never cared, forging his own path from an early age!
As awareness of our advancing years sinks in, with some things, we’re becoming more flexible. I pace myself more. Delays and changes in plans don’t throw me as much as they used to. I’m taking my time and loving it, building baskets to hang on our front porch. If I ever do get a traffic ticket, it will be for driving too slow!
If you’re a baby boomer, leave a sentence or two in the comments below on your changing perspectives.
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Your article addressing reflections as aging creeps in hit close to home. I am 78 and over the last two years have been looking at my preps and garden activities from a different perspective. I prep and preserve through canning and freezing for the future. My wife 'tolerates' my prepping but does not participate. I have 12 raised garden beds (12x4's) in 'hopes' of saving fresh vegetables and seeds. Some years are good and some are brutal since we have been in drought status, in Central Texas, for several years. Luckily, I have a Water Well, so that helps. I do the preps to ensure my wife and I will be able to weather a few months in the event Supply Chain problems arise. Now I am having to look at how much more and what do I put up. My wife will not touch the preps until the stores go dry, the shelves are bare and her tummy starts grumbling - then she will be fine. So rotation of preps is a problem I contend with. This year my focus is on getting better Potato yields and storage for a good crop - if the green thumb shines on me. Today, I go pick up an order of Cow and Pork fat I ordered to render down into Tallow and Lard - Just a few pint jars will go a long way for us if needed. I am being more selective, looking at what makes beans and macaroni taste good and provide variety. I am tuning a Solar Oven in hopes of being able to add bread to the menu if needed. Anything that will fill a hollow stomach if needed. The grown children have no interest in gardening nor food preservation right now - times are too good for them to consider that. So, at 78 I have to pair it down to canned meats, sauces and seasonings for variety as fillers to my existing preps. I am sure I am not the only 'Boomer' having to make these considerations and adjustments.
75 and holding But I take a herbal product from the health food store call NIACINAMIDE it has vitamin b3 And it is helping to return my energy, because getting off of the floor or ground was not easy And I got worn out lots and had to sit down in a chair that I have outside every 5 minutes Now I am able to take at least one hour or more to do work out in the yard I have only been taking the product for about one month So things are looking up They say that your body stops producing vitamin b3 as we get older So I hope to change that problem now