karismar

This morning I made the trek over to my favorite urban nursery in Portland. When you walk in you just want to find a spot on the floor, sit down and take it all in. Glamorous it isn’t but the bins full of organic matter, soil, compost, barley, wheat, etc… will pull you in. Handmade soaps sit next to the unbleached wool hanks, which sit across from the plant starts, vegetable starts, flowers and anything else you can hope for.

Since I’ve been plotting out a year round garden I wanted to find some winter vegetable starts, as I can’t find my seeds anywhere!!! I found some kale, bok choy, butternut and other squash. Beautiful starts to feed us this winter. At the counter was a very knowledgeable, very young girl who wanted to know what I would do with these starts and how my garden was so far. As I told her about my winter garden dream, she told me how she has secured an internship in Thailand for 6 months and leaves in November. She will be learning about their sustainability life at the feet of the elders in the village. When her time is up she’ll come back to Portland and pass on her newly acquired knowledge. Currently she teaches small children about backyard livestock and victory gardening. How cool is she?  I was so proud of this stranger friend and as I left with my treasures I had a rush of hope jet through me. I’ve always loved teens/young 20somethings. They have such big hearts and big minds and aren’t cut off from the world. I feel re-charged with my winter garden dream and know it doesn’t have to be a dream, but a reality.