So here I am three months from retirement from my last job in the full time work department. Hurrah! I am finally old enough to collect Social Security, collect a pension from Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and to be on Medicare. I am very grateful to the planners and politicians in government that have made these benefits available and will always champion the cause of the people to have benefits help facilitate personal growth and activity without undue worry about basic needs. I am sure there will be more on this later in my blog. But for now I begin with my heart's greatest retirement desire to pursue gardening year round with the leisure my retirement from work bestows on me at this time. I want to become a Master Gardener of sorts, and during the last few weekends, I have begun to practice in earnest the way my typical work day might proceed, starting in December of this year.
This morning I dug weeds out of my top garden bed where a few asparagus ferns are growing. I approached this task absent a hurried, frantic mentality with which I have been cursed in the past when working in the soil. I never felt like I had enough time to care for our beautiful land as I desired. Now with the promise of no more 40 hour work weeks, I find myself relaxed and happy just pulling weeds from a small section of garden. No deadlines to meet, no kids left to feed, etc. Just do what I see that attracts my love!
Note to any young person who may read this: Slow down and enjoy. Just embrace balance and don't do as I once did. I tried to do everything at once and always felt pulled in what felt like a hundred directions. I am sure that was not the case and that I just needed to lower my standards a little. But on the other hand, we do live in a culture that expects a great deal from each individual and that is often very judgmental about lots of things. I think women are especially vulnerable to trying to live up to many expectations at once.
Gardening notes:
I have weeded around my two pink peonies and around the asparagus in the top bed. Incidentally, I dug up a few crocus corms. I printed three articles from the internet: one about storing bulbs and corms; two about raising asparagus. I made files for these articles and started a Gardening Section in my file cabinet. I also started this blog which I will keep private until at least the end of 2015 to give myself a chance to establish the routine of my new career as caretaker and gardener of 135 Fiddlehead Lane, Hampton, TN. 37658.
Fiddlehead Farm Estates, LLC:
135 Fiddlehead Lane is a part of Fiddlehead Farm. This Farm consists of an LLC with members, plus four individual private properties of about seven acres each. The LLC manages approximately 56 acres which has been designated by the American Tree Farm System as a Certified Tree Farm. There is a whole history of The Fiddlehead Farm which began in 1980. Perhaps more on this later. Right now, suffice it to say that we (the members) were young when we purchased our property, we had houses to build, children to birth and raise, and livings to earn to support these projects. Always alive and well has been a dream of making something beautiful and productive out of our wonderful mountain property. It is a shared dream, now shared by at least 2 generations with a 3rd generation already living and playing here. It is a dream partially accomplished and ever beckoning for more. It is a dream which sparks our imaginations and drives us forward. We know it will never be totally achieved for it is really a journey which can inspire us for a life time and hopefully continue its shimmering call over multiple generations. I have enjoyed visiting Biltmore Estates over the past two years and derive inspiration from the survival of these Estates over several generations in one family, a family that has managed to find a balance of land management which nurtures not only the family and the environment but shares it grandeur with many visitors who enjoy its grace and charm. I think of our Fiddlehead Farm Estates, LLC as a mini-estate of a similar style. Of course, there are many differences. We are obviously much, much smaller and have far less financial resources. Instead of being owned by one family, we enjoy a unique shared ownership by four families of more than 30 years. I am very, very blessed to live here and possess good energy to embrace a new career t as a loving caretaker of our seven acres and 56 common acres of Tennessee Mountain paradise.
I decided just to let my garden spaces grow up in weeds this summer of 2015 and await my retirement to start enjoying my gardening in leisure. So here are some before pictures I took today of a year of unattended garden spaces. I picked some of our seedless grapes. They were very small but tasty. All of our native grapes just dried up as usual. I will research that issue.
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