I sit in front of my computer checking email and my gaze wandered off to ‘my garden.’ I see Stinging nettles leaves and blades of wheatgrass glisten in the morning sun, dew drops perched at the tips of each blade of grass, defying gravity. The first leaves of the sunflower patch are just beginning to stretch out of their shells, as if relieved to finally greet the sun. The wheatgrass and sunflower sprouts are inside a 12×12 planting tray; the nettles are in 24×8x8 planter ‘box.’ They sit on a 15×24 redwood table by the living room window of my apartment. This is my indoor garden.
My ‘outdoor’ garden is on the other side of my apartment’s windows. Two planter boxes outside my bedroom and two outside my living room window. Those planter boxes contain various species of rosemary, Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort), nasturtiums, chives, mint, and pineapple sage. In my back porch, I also have hibernating echinacea purpureas, thyme, oregano and more rosemary. Soon my nettles will migrate over there. They might be happier there. I don’t know. This is an experiment.
All these plants have nourished both my body and soul. It is joy to say hello first thing in the morning. I could gaze at those dew drops for hours! And when I catch myself doing that, I find that there seems to be a smile permanently etched on my face.
I am thankful for my garden. Although my apartment is in the middle of an urban area, it gives me the feeling I have my little cottage in the woods. More on that later.
