If you’ve been in AB for any length of time, you know we get about 4, maybe 5 months of warm outdoor weather. Sometimes requiring a coat. If we’re lucky.
We usually have to wait ’til May around the Victoria Day long weekend to get outside and get planting and sunning. But also if you’ve lived here any amount of time, you know that plans and weather need to be as flexible since…
Snow happens. Any month of the year. It’s not always cute kids and rainbows.
Despite that, my own mum has been doing the clever Master Gardener (an actual title) thing and sprouting plants in the garage for weeks, auntie C has been for a week or two in her greenhouse tent, and I’ve been showing the kids how to set up in a few pots as well.
Mini-me looked at the pots next to the balcony and gasped “Oh, garden!” and I had to laugh and appreciate his joy even just at a few piles of dirt and leaves.
And in true hard working fashion, the kids have all been helping mama L weed the back yard along with the various planters and pots there.
As with most seasonal/traditional times, I have to thank the baba (my mum and her own mother) for giving us a love of growing things (especially ones that are edible!), and teaching that a bit of hard work goes a long way to making the most of the warm or warm-ish season we have out here.
Even if mother nature makes sure we don’t take it for granted: the land, the climate, our ability to grow, to feed, and to adapt in order to thrive.
And hey, sometimes all you have to do is wait a for a while, because things like bad weather and inclement times will always turn.
Location: Calgary+Edmonton
-PBD
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