“Cultivate”

“To cultivate is to nurture and help grow. Farmers cultivate crops, fundraising professionals cultivate donors, and celebrities cultivate their images. When you cultivate something, you work to make it better.” — vocabulary.com

I have always appreciated fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden or straight off the trees.

The amazement of picking thumb-sized raspberries or giant sweet peas (organic too) from my friend’s mom’s yard when I was little, is a memory that will stick around for a long while.

She sure cultivated that garden.

Everything she grew flourished and was perfect. My friend’s mom knew all the tips and tricks of how to attain a massive and beautiful outdoor nursery space.

One of my dreams has always been to learn tp grow plants, veggies and fruit like she could. My Mom had a bit of a garden and I remember we would visit Art Knaaps a lot and another little greenhouse down at the end of a road in my neighbourhood. Although I didn’t have a lot of experience with gardening, my soul felt peaceful whenever I was able to do it.

Fast forward to my adult years…

I have an aloe that is barely hanging on and most plants don’t make it more than a week in my home.

Still, with Luke’s prompting, we decided to take on building a greenhouse and expanding our little group of starters we acquired from my sister, neighbour and the store. We now have peppers, tomatoes, edamame, peas, beans, ‘spaghetti mix’ herbs and strawberries.

Having just picked up a few lengths of lumber today, we will hopefully finish the DIY potting shed this weekend. We are both pretty proud..and stoked at what we have cultivated and what is to come.

Paraphrasing the end of the quote above, “I am working to make myself and things better.

While I’m not holding my breath quite yet to be able to actually enjoy eating anything, with Luke’s help and his little green thumb, I am confident we will get there.

Keep growing,

-Becky