Written by: Zoe Chen
There was a story about small me that my grandmother loved to tell. As my family loves to fish, my grandmother would always pick the biggest worms in her garden to bring on the trips. At that time, she gestured for me to come over. I was only 3 then and had never seen a worm before. “Put out your hand,” she told me, plopping the worm on my palm. As I felt the wiggling worm, little me was frightened like never before and fell right back on my bottom! “Nǎi nai! How could you!” Retelling this always got a chuckle out of her.
My Grandma:
My grandmother was one of my earliest introductions to gardening. What can I say? She just has a natural green thumb. With her garden in our backyard for who knows how long, so many people from our church or neighbourhood would come to her with questions about their garden. This post won’t be going much into the advice however if you are planning to start a garden, there are dozens of lessons and activities to help out on this website. Feel free to also send an email if you need help.
Me and my sister would work in the garden usually just as a helper: watering the plants, planting seeds, weeding, or whatever else she needs us to do. Our role in the garden was more prominent until I became a disgruntled tween meaning that I hated the outside. I also became upset when the sunflowers from a sunflower field (named Yona and Soleil respectively) were dying despite my friend’s flowers flourishing even though we got them at the same time; THEN when we brought them outside for sunlight a squirrel tried to eat them!! Ahem. Still, I regret not spending more time helping my grandma, this is something I’m working on doing. This is a lesson to you, when first starting, you might fail, nevertheless, don’t give up as I had!
Recent updates:
My mom calls me outside and the moment I take a step out an obnoxious screeching bursts my ears. Running to the backyard, I see my grandpa cutting down a branch on my tree (I like climbing this tree) “NO! WHY?”
My uncle gifted my grandma a greenhouse! Space was needed so they had to cut down the branch… RIP, you will forever be remembered. The greenhouse is super high-tech, it can open or close the windows depending on the temperature. I had to spend a lot of time bringing the dirt into the greenhouse yet it looks so brilliant that it’s worth it.
Purple beans! Sounds weird, looks strange, feels shiny but tastes delicious. They are the new edition to the garden this year, there is always at least one new produce each year. I would give you the proper name… however it seems it is actually called “purple beans”. (here for more information)
Hurra! I bring you good news of great joy, our cherry tree has heaps of buds! After 2 years of not producing much, my grandma really worked her magic this time and hopefully, her hard work will produce fruit(heh). Listen cherry tree, you are drowning in fertilizer and cow poop, don’t let all that go to waste.
Conclusions:
The end of the blog draws near. Hopefully you had as much fun reading this blog as I had writing it and it inspires you to start your own garden. My grandmother recommends first timers to grow tomatoes as they are very forgiving, however if you want to be spicy, I would recommend purple beans. (here for how to grow) There have already been countless blogs on how to maintain your garden, and there is more to come so keep your eye out.
Have the bestest day!
Zoe Chen