A year in review...2019
Ganoderma applanatum (Artist conk) mushrooms dwarf Pepper pup in February!
November 2019
What.a.year.
Funny looking back upon the last entry, nearly two years ago now, and realizing that my goal of writing here at least once a month didn’t come into fruition. And that’s okay. I’m not going to beat myself up about it or lament about how there was simply no time. Because there was if I had allocated it. There was if I really chose it.
Truthfully, putting together a post takes time. And a certain amount of technological savvy that I rarely have the patience for….but lately I’ve been called back to do a ‘year in review’ as my feet have been treading on a different, yet familiar plant path.
The year of 2018 found me filling orders for Maiden AK faster than ever before, both the wholesale and retail business had grown incredibly. Yet there seemed to be something missing, something off that kept nudging me to question my role in this particular partnership of plants and people. I found myself getting more and more disconnected when making the same product over and over. It seemed less magical, more ‘productive’. While walking in the mountains one day in July, I asked the Universe for help and the answer was to ‘go forth’. So I let go of the position of produce manager at You Say Tomato, our local natural foods store. It was a part time job that I actually really enjoyed, but had become repetitive in nature for me and I thought that if I quit, well, there would be all this ‘time’ for focusing on Maiden Alaska Herbals, time to focus on more plant-based writing, time to work on the second children’s book that has been brewing for a while.
Instead, the Universe had other plans.
Instead of focusing on Maiden AK, in January of 2019, I re-accepted the role of garden manager at Jewell Gardens, an organic show & production garden, combined with a glass blowing studio and restaurant. It is a role I held for 5 years before babies, a place where I worked in some sort of capacity for nine. A garden where my footsteps had tread hundreds, if not thousands of miles. A garden whose plants I helped tend and watch grow up.
A garden in need of a guardian.
You see, the founder and original owner, Charlotte Jewell, passed away a little over 2 years ago. Her son Max has accepted the responsibility of continuing her business, however, unlike his mother, he doesn’t have the plant knowledge that can make a garden grow. This is where I come in.
But the transition was difficult. After making my own schedule and working mostly from home and at You Say Tomato (a natural foods store) for the last 10 years, having to stick to a prescribed schedule was disruptive. My kids weren’t used to me not being available. I wasn’t used to it either. That was one of the most challenging aspects ~ not feeling like being a good enough mother as I chased my passion for plants yet again.
My son and I at Jewell Gardens 2009 ~ at this point I was no longer managing the garden but was instead the CSA (community supported agriculture) director.
But then came August & September. And if you’re a gardener, you probably love these months too. For now, planting season is over, the weeds are probably mostly under control (and if not, you’ve probably accepted that), the flowers have been blooming for months and the veggies are bountiful. There’s a break in the ‘urgency’ of gardening, a time before the fall chores start where one can really enjoy the partnership of plant tending.
Slowly over the summer, some of the garden crew and I had been working on an area known as the Sun Bed. Charlotte had designed it to look like a sun with rays when viewed from above. The design has morphed a few times over the years and in the fall of 2018, it was completely rototilled in order to try and reclaim it from massive amounts of weed growth. When I encountered the Sun Bed last winter, it was a blank slate. Well, a blank slate that eventually grew a ton of weeds. Over the summer, it was rototilled twice more until finally there was an opportunity to really focus on the space.
I tried some designs on paper, knew that I wanted to create an area that was solely for medicinal plants (nope, not marijuana, but that’s what many of the visitors think when you say that!), and also knew that I wanted to have a space in the garden where (eventually) you could sit in the center and be absolutely encircled by plants, a place to be in communion. A center space where classes could gather and harvest and learn about the magic and medicine and beauty of the plants that grow here, both native and cultivated. As I worked with two really lovely humans on the formation of the Sun’s center, a space for fire, the land began directing. We formed the entrances to the center based on the cardinal directions, and slowly but surely began to form the circular pathways and other entrances that organically formed an easy labyrinth. Years before, I had always wanted to create a labyrinth or a meditative circle in the garden, other gardeners have had the same idea, so it was really nice to see it take shape here.
On the last day of said lovely gardeners’ employment (thank you Leah & Joey!), we wrapped up the Sun Bed. Well, there’s still some work needed on the dry creek bed, namely, more rocks. But the soil has been shaped, ideas are in the works, we have a few medicinal shrubs/trees ready for spring planting and the joy of this project lingers on.
Last day working on the Sun bed together!
Finding that balance between your passion, your pocketbook, your joy, your family, your beliefs, your morals, your self…it’s a balance that fluctuates that’s for sure. Now that it’s November, I’m feeling much more rested. More content now that I’m working from home again. Content with less stress. Yet, I’m looking forward to what comes next at Jewell Gardens. I’m looking forward to planting the Sun Bed, planning the blooms and veggies and herbs of next year.
The ebb and flow of this plant led life is what I’ll sail on with, at least right now. Creating small batch medicinal herbal products and helping to create, motivate, and educate folks about plants as well as care take the grounds of Jewell Gardens is where I am at the moment. It’s a lot. I’m tweaking it here and there, trying to find that spark of joy while making a choice or while simply doing the dishes. Really paying attention to that spark is key. This topic is for another day though as the light begins to mingle with the raindrops and the backyard Spruce trees which means the family will begin to arise and this quiet time of mine will shift to family time.
Blooms & Blessings ~ wherever you may be,
~ Emily