A new hobby

Who would have thought it would end up being more addicting than Facebook? When I began this activity three months ago, the idea that it could be habit-forming never even occurred to me. I wouldn’t have believed that it would occupy my thoughts even when I wasn’t engaging in it. That I would spend money and time and effort on it. That it would affect my eating habits and my family.
I started a vegetable garden.
Having grown up in generation X, gardening has never been a way of life for me. I was never exposed to the age-old occupation of growing one’s own food. I loved plants as a child, but during my careless teenage years, I internalised the hard lesson that I would only be the cause of their destruction if they were left in my care. So I didn’t try.
It was my tree-hugging sentiments that finally made me want to give it a go. The desire to be a part of my planet and my environment- to cut down on food miles, and to experience a natural connection with what I eat. Three months ago I had to choose a new rental home. And when I found one with a barren strip of sand behind the house, I knew this was the place for me. It’s so rare, when renting, to find a place you can actually DO something to! Turning that desolate mini-wasteland into something teeming with life has been the most rewarding experience. Starting with absolutely no knowledge of horticulture made it all the more exciting and adventurous.
My adventure began, unfortunately for the young seedlings, at the beginning of Perth’s longest and hottest dry spell in a decade. But perhaps it was this adversity that created the addiction. Twice a day I watered them, watching over them like babies in intensive care. At first it was just a desire to prove I could do it- then it turned into something close to love. And just like a mother is rewarded with her baby’s first smile, my little zucchini plants rewarded me by bursting into succulent, saffron-coloured blooms a few weeks in. I took pictures and posted them proudly on facebook. And the adoring comments I received would have made any mother’s heart proud. One Facebook comment, though, made me “lol”: “It’s like you’ve got a garden app.,” it said, “except real!”
It hasn’t been all joy- caterpillars attacked ferociously, and during the time it took me to find an organic caterpillar spray that wouldn’t hurt the good bugs, the zucchini developed a nasty case of powdery mildew. I searched the Internet for organic cures, and tried several, but after a long, hard battle, the zucchini finally succumbed. Survival of the fittest rules in my garden, and the eggplant is taking the zucchini’s place. What astounds me the most is the intelligence of the vines- the cucumber and peas. How do they know how to do that? They send little tendrils reaching out toward anything that can support them and latch on. I mean, I knew this, of course, but to go outside every morning and see that a new tendril has found a new place to grab is ridiculously pleasing.
And the food! I’m not that much of a vegetable eater- hate shopping for it and cutting it up, but when your lettuces are ready, you’d better eat them! And so it is that I find myself with a whole bowl of organic, gourmet lettuce in front of me that I wouldn’t be eating otherwise, and the vegephobic child who calls me Mum is dancing around in the garden with delight, squealing, “we have our first vegetable! We made vegetables grow!” He’s eagerly waiting for the cherry tomatoes to turn red so he can eat them.
Vegephobic he may be, but he has an inordinate love of creatures great and small. And so purchasing a box of worms and introducing them to their new home was akin to acquiring 500 new slimy friends- whom we never saw again. But they’re there, somewhere under the spinach and carrots, and he thinks about them when it rains, and I’m not allowed to dig where they are. Bees and wasps and butterflies have also made our garden home - the transformation from an arid little space bordered by an asbestos fence and a brick wall into a jungle of tomato, capsicum, cucumber and eggplant bushes all in flower and fruit is nothing short of a natural renovation, and I don’t blame the little guys for wanting to move in.
My cooking has changed, too. I don’t need the dry herbs in my spice rack any more, because every meal is made with fresh herbs, garlic, and chilli from the garden. I was running out of meal ideas, so I purchased a new cookbook called “Fresh and Fast”- purchased entirely for its recipe for lettuce and pea soup! Just the kind of weird new recipe I’m after to use up all these lettuces.
It seems that there is a fear, in our current Zeitgeist climate, that doing something for the environment is going to mean sacrifice in some way. Organic food and environmentally-friendly supermarket products are often more expensive, and may be of lesser quality, cycling instead of driving takes too long, or too much effort, and growing a garden- who can even do that? Who has the space and the time and the patience for it? What if I told you that you could enjoy gardening as much as you enjoy procrastinating on Facebook? What if I told you that I live with a seven-year-old boy who leaves his Xbox-360 to join me in the garden? What if I told you that the effort of shopping for fresh produce can be halved in six months? And that the time digging and breathing in fresh air and eating fresh-out-of-the-garden food wouldn’t be a chore, just a beautiful new pleasure?
Well, I’m telling you now.