It's Easter! Well, I guess just a few days away but I'm thrilled to be in the throws of spring sunshine. A quick stroll around our property is like my own little Easter egg hunt only the prize I'm looking for is little green shoots and buds pushing up out of the snow soaked ground. Each time I find one of my plants peaking out of the sandy dirt I do a little happy dance inside! It means something worked! There is promise of new life!
When we first moved to Central Oregon a little over 12 years ago, I was a little wet behind the ears. Coming from Utah where the endless hot sun brought forth a backyard bounty with little effort I was indignant when my neighbor rolled his eyes at our hearty garden construction. I will always remember his half hearted 'Good luck!' - he is a landscape genious after all, it's what he does for a living! Then we watched as another next door neighbor hauled in truck loads (I'm talking semi-truck loads!) of compost and top soil and turned on his sprinklers only to keep them running for a full 2 months while he planted a jungle. He touted the lofty title of 'Master Gardener' and was determined to live up to this monicker. My husband and I looked at each other and shrugged, while we just filled our garden with the usual tomatoes, lettuce, beats, carrots etc. We knew what we were doing afterall, we had created a successful 'backyard homestead' for ourselves on our postage stamp of a yard in the heart of Salt Lake City and seen great success! How could it be any different here?! We didn't need 'luck' or truckloads of manure to do this. We just needed the will and grit to see it happen.
Well, 12 years later and as many summers under our belts, we will tell you that gardening here is not for the faint of heart. What worked elsewhere or even what works in town (those tightly placed houses create a little micro-environment), will likely just not work out here or at least won't yield the same crops. We have tried many many things and currently we have filled our raised beds with premium soil mixed with our very own pigeon poop (yes, we keep pigeons....another story for another day:). So, when I walk the perimeter of our property to survey the spring offerings this is why each and every green shoot brings cause for celebration and this is the time of year that I get to celebrate on a daily basis!
Despite all of the adversity, the pests, the sandy soil, the June hailstorms (every year without fail!), we carry on. There's just a need in us to plant, to push a seed into the ground and see it come back as a green seedling stretching toward the sunshine. The promise of fruit, flowers, berries, anything really, is what urges us to overcome our doubt and forget the toiling of the last 12 years, approaching each new spring with enthusiasm and eagerness. Do you have this inner urge too? I'd love to know the ways you've seen success in gardening and growing, especially here in Central Oregon!