A Respite from COVID Craziness
An afternoon in the garden with kitties and flowers
Now that my husband and I are mostly recovered from having had COVID-19, the reality of the new world paradigm has set in for us. I have, literally, not left my house (except for a few recent walks in the neighborhood) in a month. I have been, and still am, afraid of infecting anyone. Nobody seems to have a good answer as to how long you are contagious after having this nasty thing.
But my garden has always been my refuge. I am an organic gardener and grow a lot of our veggies and fruits. Years ago, I also decided to plant a wide variety of flowers so that I will always have enough to make a bouquet or two, in every season. I grow a lot from seed packets, with those lovely names like Hummingbird Haven and Bring Home the Butterflies. And, as a result, a rather wild garden has emerged.
Those seeds seem to migrate to wherever they are best suited. So, I always end up with Love in a Mist right out in the center of everything, where it can soak up the sunshine. And bees are constantly buzzing around the fuzzy borage plants, which have sprouted up in random nooks and crannies. It makes my heart happy to be providing these precious pollinators with one of their favorite sources of nectar.
My kitties are my gardening assistants. They love nothing more than to follow me around, tussling with each other and digging in the dirt alongside me. I grow catnip for them, and they adore lounging under the lemon tree after partaking in a little “nip.”
Despite all of mankind’s craziness, Mother Nature seems to be quite happy this spring. Here, in Southern California, we’ve been drenched in mists, rains and even a brief outburst of hail lately. And I’m not sure that I have ever seen the sky quite so blue or the air so clean as it has been in the last month.
Garden stores have been deemed part of “essential services.” So, while you cannot stroll through them, as I so love to do, I was able to place an order over the phone and had plants delivered to my driveway. In this time of uncertainty, it soothes my soul a bit to know that I can grow lettuces, tomatoes and other products right here in my own backyard. And the flowers make my heart flutter a little faster.
I spent this last Sunday afternoon immersed in the garden, in all of its spring glory, kitties at my heels. We meditated. We checked on the progress of the gladiolas (about to explode into tall, nodding stalks of exploding colors) and the tulips, which are just beginning to poke up out of the earth. We took a nap in the sunshine. And we investigated the seedlings. It seems like, almost overnight, those little green buds have morphed into full-grown plants, which surprise me daily with unexpected blossoms.
The poppies, bright orange bursts of papery petals with blazing yellow stamen curling from their centers, were among the first to sprout from the seeds I sowed this spring. They remind me of little fairy cups of sunshine.
The Columbine, delicate little confetti pink inverted bells, also appear early in the season.
And the plum tree has been putting on quite a show.
My husband has been working from home since early March. While he has always appreciated the garden, he’s never really had a hand in it. So, it surprised me when he took to tending to our new lettuces. While I was still sick, he actually planted the three six-packs of romaine we had ordered.
He took out all of the old soil in our raised bed and poured in fresh new dirt, then tenderly placed the new lettuces alongside the basil and cilantro, which we had also ordered. He’s been watering them and checking on them daily. I think that it has been so good for his state of mind to be in the garden.
Even if you don’t have more than a sunny windowsill, you can still grow a few things. Tomatoes can be grown vertically, or even hung so that the fruit drapes down. And a few packs of mescaline blend lettuce seeds can be sown very tightly together. They will grow into “micro-greens.” If you cut the top third off of the greens, they will keep coming back. For lettuces like the romaine, you remove and eat the outer leaves first, making sure to pinch back any signs of flowers forming. If you don’t pinch them back, the plant’s energy goes into the flower and the leaves get bitter.
Mother Nature seems to have just hit the “reset” button, and the world is now adjusting. My hope is that what emerges is a new sense of how connected we all are, not just to each other, but to the plants, and to the animals which roam this world. Nature holds the keys to the healing of the earth. If we are smart, we will allow ourselves to be immersed in her bounty. We will learn to appreciate the great gifts she has blessed us with.
So, while everything seems a little topsy turvy right now, I hope that you, too, can find a little time to connect in your own way with the natural world. Buy a birdfeeder. Plants some vegetables. Take a walk and stop to smell the flowers. I think that you will find your mind to be a little calmer, your breath a little steadier, and your heart a little more in tune with the hum of the Universe.
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies). Erika is also an editor for Dharma Talk.
I hope that you enjoyed this. You might also like our story of getting, and surviving COVID-19, and of our re-adjustment to the world once we were well again:
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Story and photos ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.
