If fifteen years ago somebody would have told me that in my 30s I would voluntarily spend my free hours planting seeds, watering plants, and pulling weeds, I would have definitely asked that person are they in their right mind. But here I am, burning my neck in the scorching sunlight while getting my hands dirty, and feeling happy as a clam! So what has changed?
When I was a teen, I dreamed about living in a big city, renting a flat in a skyscraper, and living agriculture-free lifestyle, because while growing up in a village I quite disliked weeding large fields, picking apples, or doing other things that some people tend to romanticize. It was a chore to me, sometimes even a hard physical labor (I could talk hours about haymaking, and hours spent in large fields working with a pitchfork). But it was my duty as a child in my family, so I did all I was asked. However, once I was living on my own, I no longer was obliged to do these kinds of stuff (also, because my parents decided to give up our tiny farm), so I just enjoyed my life in the student dormitory and later, in a rented flat.
But four of five years ago something just clicked in my brain and I understood that I cannot escape from my nature. Being raised in a private house with a garden, having experienced all the aspects of life in a village, I suggested to my husband to look for a house instead of a flat. And so we did.
Two years ago we purchased a small house and a patch of land in an allotment (a legacy from soviet times). This spring my husband set up 6 raised beds for vegetables and herbs, and I never felt more proud than now, filling my basket with home-grown spinach, lettuce, radishes, onions... I even planted some tomatoes, and I do hope that they would produce some kind of harvest.
Working in the garden is my form of meditation, it really helps to clear my head, as well as generate new ideas.
Not to mention that during the quarantine the garden became our glorified escape! It was such a relief to leave our apartment and do some physical work for a change. Our dog also loves to go together and goof around with her ball or just lay lazily and inform us about every passenger with her low woofs.
Besides the vegetable beds I also try to cultivate a cottage garden type of flower beds, so there's lots of planning, planting, and replanting happening now, because this stuff is far from easy. But I am determined to form my garden to be Pinterest perfect, so I am hoping to have a pleasant result in... ten years (*smiles hopefully*).
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