My favourite gardening years at the coast were when I had shelves of grow lights and started all my own seeds. I had a huge garden and grew all our vegetables. (I hadn't discovered flowers yet!) I froze, canned and dried and it was all very satisfying.
Subsequent moves downgraded my gardening experience until at the end, my garden was on a small balcony on the twelfth floor of a highrise. Still, I had many pots of flowers (at this point, vegetables were a thing of the past). My containers lined the balcony, on shelves, perched on the railing and hanging. My theme had become flowers and leaves that could be pressed. My grow lights were packed away and I prowled the garden centres for bedding plants.
Now, we have left the coast and I am adjusting to a different climate. My compost takes a lot longer to decompose, and our first summer here we lost our tomatoes to frost on July 1st. However, my old cardboard and hay method of preparing a garden worked and I am enjoying all the space. Last year, I decided to pull out some of my grow lights and installed them under my kitchen cupboards. This is nothing like my original set up and I am starting seeds in large pots that will go directly outside at some point. But it allows me once again that thrill of watching seedlings push their way up through the soil - renewing the circle of life.
