Tale of Two Cities

It’s at all times exhausting to know when to name it quits. Gardening is a lot greater than a interest, and, to many of us, it’s an integral half of our lives. I do know that nothing works as properly for me personally when I’m feeling blue, unhappy, or depressed than to exit and get my palms soiled within the yard.

Given how the yr organizes itself into seasons although, it appears virtually a directive from nature that sufficient is sufficient. There’s a time to sow, a time to reap, and a time to go away the backyard to its personal gadgets. Though that’s tougher than it sounds.

Gardening as Redemption

Is it simply fashionable life – with its spectacular know-how, quick machines, and distant work – that makes the hours within the backyard appear redemptive? I don’t suppose I’m the one gardener who heads to the yard, shovel in hand, to search out some peace. The birds twitter from the bushes, the leaves within the breeze make their very own music, and shortly the cares and frustrations of a troublesome day evaporate just like the morning fog.

This occurs to me in each San Francisco and in Basque Nation in France, the place I’ve a bit of cabin and an enormous backyard. Working with my bushes, shrubs, and crops by no means fails to provide me a psychological elevate.

Tale of Two Cities: San Francisco

The climates of my two house cities are very completely different. San Francisco has a really gentle local weather year-round. It’s virtually as if there have been no seasons. Flowers bloom in spring, summer season, fall, and even in winter, and it’s doable to develop crops 12 months of the yr. In fact, tomatoes and different sun-loving crops don’t do spectacularly properly, given San Francisco’s well-known morning fog, however we don’t have to fret about an excessive amount of sizzling solar both.

The backyard by no means stops on this metropolis. I plant and reap all yr, though it’s largely leafy greens and cool season crops from October via February. Nonetheless, there’s at all times one thing going within the California backyard, sufficient to maintain me glad.

Tale of Two Cities: Sare, France

Then there’s Sare. September and October are my favourite months, however as every day passes, the air will get chillier. By November, the leaves have fallen, and rains have begun. By December, I put on gloves to go for a hike.

It’s right here in France that I’ve the selection to attempt to lengthen the backyard season with little greenhouses, or to stroll away. Once I lived in Sare all winter, I used to go to nice lengths to attempt to have one thing at all times rising, utilizing backyard crop covers and bringing containers in at night time. Lately I spend winters in San Francisco, so letting the backyard have its manner is best and most pure.