If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

One of the downsides of apartment living for me is the lack of opportunity for gardening. Ever since I was five, I’ve grown my own garden, that first one with the help of my mother. There is a lot of joy for me in eating something that I’ve grown. When I owned my last home I had a huge garden. The main plot was fifteen by twenty feet. Additionally, I had a ten by fifteen foot greenhouse and three, four by eight foot raised beds and an area with a dozen rose bushes. Not to mention apple and plum trees. I also would grow pumpkins and winter squash in the back corner of the yard. By late summer I had a continuous bounty of tomatoes, carrots, peas, cucumbers, peppers, squash, scallions, basil, cilantro, dill and blueberries. I really miss that level of gardening.

For the last three years I’ve lived in a studio apartment. A noisy neighbor drove me to have to make a change of apartments and I consciously picked one with a balcony that faced east so that I’d have a lot of morning sun in the spring and summer. I did this for one simple reason, to be able to put together a container garden together. I’ve got most of the garden up and running. The only additions I need to make are a couple of herbs, spearmint and basil in particular.

I’ve got several window boxes that currently have carrots, radishes, scallions, cucumbers and peas in them. Of course I also have four containers with tomato plants, my two favorite things in the world to grow are tomatoes and roses. Both remind me of my Grandpa Kane, he taught me how to grow roses and one of his favorite things in the world was to eat that first ripe tomato each year like an apple, covered in salt, with a bottle of beer. Which was what both what my brother and I did to honor him the night he died.

Finally, I also decided this year to hang up a hummingbird feeder. And happily, after taking a few days to find it, the ruby-throated hummingbirds in the neighborhood have located the feeder.

This past week, I had a very happy morning, just sitting on the balcony in the sun, looking at my little plants breaking through the ground and watching the hummingbirds dive bomb me and the feeder. It’s important my friends to find those tranquil places and times to just sit and be. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane