Earth Day, 2013

Ya’ll –

(Yep, I’m gonna talk to ya’ll like a true Southern 'cause I'm just so excited... and I ain’t got time for (attempted) grammatical preciseness to distract me!)

(I doubt I'll be able to keep up the act, so needn't now to stop your reading.)

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. And I wanted to share some news: I planted a garden (last week). My very first garden. I have been waitin' and waitin' and waitin' to share, but it's Earth Day, so I said to heck with waitin' until I saw the first sign of life; I am posting today, in honor of our dear planet. This will inevitably lead to embarrassment when I report back here in a few weeks that everything including basil, an herb supposedly impossible to screw up, is dead. Even worse will be the pesto infused meals I envisioned—distant dreams at that point. 

This past weekend, I went to the United States Botanic Garden, and even though I'm more into sustanible farming—crops and such—than flowers, I left inspired. So I thought I should inject this relatable tangent. I saw plants from everywhere, even the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho was represented. 

These flowers were there. And they were pretty. And all spring-y in color. 

There were tons of fancy, unique orchids to be seen. But I was too busy admirin' and smellin' and just plain livin' to bother pullin' out my phone to snap a picture. Lets be real folks... who doesn't like them self an orchid? Atlas orchids. Green dragon orchids. Kaleidoscope orchids. Princess diana orchids.  (Those are just a few of the more memorably-named orchids seen.) 

There were no sunflowers, which was vastly disappointing. Boyfriend exclaimed it was far too early for those. But after traversing through the endangered species, garden court, Hawaii, jungle, plant adaptation, and world desert exhibits... one would have thought there might have been room for Kansas. 

But again, Lesotho. That rocked. And got me thinking. This technically (is and) isn't my first (garden) rodeo. During my stint in Thaba-Tseka, I depended on my (host family’s) garden to bring variety to my diet. You see, while I picked crops from the garden, my host family did all the dirty, labor-intensive work. They terraced. They sowed. They ploughed. They watered. They weeded. If it counts for anything, I learned farming was no joke.

Far from the mountains of Lesotho, in Washington, DC, I find myself without an iota of land. Boyfriend looked into community plots… and oh circa sophomore year of college, I should have foreseen my life here and signed-up for the wait list. And even then, after waitin' and waitin' for eventually ever, I would've been generously allowed to purchase my very own one square yard test-plot. Then I would've had one-year to prove I'm worth the space. Well, you know what, county board, forget you and your community plots; I'm not deterred. I'll (help) keep the farmers in business at the Saturday markets. And I'm gonna grow the best darn herb garden on my balcony—proving my worth to every neighbor and passerby in range.

So to planting. To encouragement. And growing. To something new. And eating. To reducing my carbon footprint. To life. To the nine-mile walk to the Botanic Garden. To inspiration. Happy Earth Day friends.