Harvesting with the Season 

Gardening feeds my body and soul. That’s why it’s difficult to put the garden to bed at the end of the season. A couple of weeks ago, I walked around fallen walnuts in the yard to cut all of my chard, kale and beet greens, thinking that was it for this year. But it rained again, it didn’t frost and I ended up with another deeply green batch.

I let the green tomatoes hang on the now spindly plants hoping they would turn red even though the leaves were dry and crunchy. Then the trusty, and correct, weather person predicted a freeze. Now they are in a brown bag ripening. I’ve removed the tomato cages and supports so the garden looks brown and empty.

One lesson I learned through getting seasonal acupuncture treatments for the past 20 years is that even it is difficult for me to say goodbye to the year’s gardening season, each season has its purpose. Twenty years ago, I was in the middle of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. That meant that as flu and holiday season arrived, my body’s immune system had been decimated in the effort to make sure the cancer wouldn’t return. The nurse in the chemo lab recommended I not go out Christmas shopping because I could so easily catch a cold or any other illness that might be circulating in a crowd.

That’s when Hunter Purdy, my holistic nurse, recommended I try acupuncture. Dr. Maureen Flannery recognized the fragility of my body and said she could give me a treatment to strengthen my immune system. She also talked about how winter is a time to be still, a time to reflect and renew. I learned it can be a season to build strength and to absorb lessons that I can put to work when spring arrives.

During that winter of chemotherapy, I didn’t get a cold or the flu. That was enough to convince me to learn more about acupuncture and to continue with seasonal treatments.

It also encouraged me to take a different look at my least favorite time of year. Now I embrace winter as a time of thinking and learning, of harvesting in a different way. Though I admit that if the spring sun could hit my skin a month sooner, that would make me happy.

Even though it’s still Fall, our yard had snow in two days ago. It should be considerably warmer this weekend, giving me an opportunity to finish cleaning up the gardens around our house. I’ll empty growing containers of their soil and store them out of the weather. I’ll re-mark spots in the garden where perennials will return. I’ll cut back raspberry bushes and cover them with dried leaves. Maybe I’ll dig up my rosemary and re-pot it to grow inside. Inside rosemary never thrives for me, so if you have tips for growing it indoors, send them my way!

When I finish outside, I’ll come inside where I have a stack of gardening books I haven’t read. I think it’s time to choose at least one to keep me company during the upcoming winter season.