Springtime Feature Article: My Passion for Plants and Gardening

^{By: Marina Castillo, Honorary Vice-Chairman}

I just love to be in my garden.  It brings me joy at all different levels.  Since my semi-retirement ten years ago, I enjoy going to my line dancing class and gardening is my passion.

Personally, I enjoy the physical benefits, emotional highs, and stress relief gardening provides.  When I’m in the garden, my mood improves.  I find that when I’m trying to find a solution to a personal problem, I dig.  I plant.  I listen to nature.  My garden is the place I can just relax and ease into finding a solution, or peace, or joy.

I love houseplants as well, which are popular worldwide right now, particularly with Millennials. There’s this houseplant craze; my Facebook friends posting their various collections on their timeline.  There’s a new energy and youthful enthusiasm about green, sustainable practices, and that gives me joy to interact with them.
Gardening is good for our bodies, minds, and spirits; as gardeners, we know this.  There is research to prove it.

My backyard is very long but mainly crazy paved so my son and daughter can safely cycle when they were very young.  Gardening in a small, intimate planting space is a good experience.  I have hardy herbaceous perennial borders (roses, hydrangeas, salvias, etc.), rockeries and a small patch for vegetables.  I also have containers. The garden soil is fertile, and I plant things close together for efficiency.  I squeeze a lot of flavour and beauty into my small space.  When planting vegetables, I need to remind myself that it’s a bit tricky.  I need to provide adequate space, so they reach their mature size, and space for me to get in and harvest.

Flowerbeds are strategically placed for various perennials and pollinators.  I plant a few raised beds with below the knee attractive annual flowers to have a better view.

They provide a break when my knees are tired from kneeling to plant and pull weeds.  (I’m a hands-and-knees kind of weeder.)

Gardening is a humbling experience, but it’s also energising and I’m learning something!  There’s an anonymous quote, which goes something like this:

“A green thumb gardener is someone who has grown lots of plants, killed quite a few…and just doesn’t talk about those that died.” 

So, every plant I kill gets me closer to becoming a green thumb gardener!  That pretty much sums it up!