Gardening

I never have grown a garden, much less been overly interested in the whole process but this year for some reason it is what I long to do. I've only been at it a week but I am truely captivated by the whole process. You see I have a little garden plot down Ave. K sandwiched between 20th and 21st Street. I (and by I, I mean Erica, Jane and myself) have planted beans, peas, radishes, lettuce, spinich, carrots, tomatoes, and even cucumbers. We planted them all on Monday and I am proud to say after much watering that the radishes are all in a row and tonight as I carefully inspected the other little rows I saw carrots, onions and even some pease peeking it's way up through the ground. How truely amazing it all is. But what I find most amazing is what comes alongside this gardening adventure. You see it's a community garden I grow in and so naturally there are people whom I garden with. Within the first week I moved into this apartment Erica and I became friends with the family down the hall. The friendship defies all logic. They are a couple in there forties with four kids, they are professional people from Afghanistan, they are practising Muslims, we are different as night in day in come aspects and yet our friendship has blossomed as we have begun to garden together. And everyday Mohammed and Sangin and I trek on over to our garden. We have searched for water in this past week (as the garden's water is not yet hooked up) and our search has allowed us to meet our new gardening neighbours, a sweet chinese woman who barely knows English, makes tofu in her backyard shed, and is delighted that we are gardening next to her house and a generous older man who graciously lets us use his water when ever we need it. I have met a couple who normally I would be rather hesitant to talk to on the street. He had slashes all up his arm and she was in some rough shape and yet they helped me carry the heavy water container over to the garden and were very interested in what was growing, we stood there for a couple minutes talking about this little piece of land I have and joked about how I was so attached to it and I wouldn't know what to do if it doesn't grow. It's amazing how this garden brings people together. I have thought of the garden of eden and how lovely it must have been to garden next to God himself. Imagine the stories He told and the lessons they learned just while digging in the dirt and` getting their hands dirty next to God. How exciting it must have been to see the seeds that were planted flourish and how lovingly God must have smiled the first time Eve giggled in excitment as the plants were breaking through the soil. Truely how beautiful it must have been. So there you have it. I love my garden and the people that surround it.