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I moved into this house in 2016, but it took until the summer of 2020 for my backyard to feel like home. Together with my husband and partner, we built a firepit and a raised bed garden. I set up the little back shed with my gardening implements and tinder. I cleaned up the junk left by the previous owners, and planted mint, wild strawberry, and jack in the pulpit. Now I could walk around in my bare feet, feeling the soil between my toes.
I augmented the soil with topsoil, compost, and aged manure, burying organic waste deep inside my garden to be eaten and transformed by hungry worms. Now, instead of a patchy lawn bleached by dog droppings and pool chemicals, I had soil teeming with life. I planted native species, and suddenly, my garden shone with the emerald bodies of green bees. Jewelled dragonflies dive-bombed mosquitoes, plush bumble bees staggered into pumpkin blossoms, drunk on nectar. Robins shrilled at me from the neighbour’s mulberry tree, and chipmunks skittered along their urban game trails.
I set up a table and chairs and began living outdoors. At night, I slept on the back deck and heard the call of a Great Horned Owl and watched the acrobatics of little brown bats. I may live in a big city, but I finally found a spot where I can almost forget that.
I augmented the soil with topsoil, compost, and aged manure, burying organic waste deep inside my garden to be eaten and transformed by hungry worms. Now, instead of a patchy lawn bleached by dog droppings and pool chemicals, I had soil teeming with life. I planted native species, and suddenly, my garden shone with the emerald bodies of green bees. Jewelled dragonflies dive-bombed mosquitoes, plush bumble bees staggered into pumpkin blossoms, drunk on nectar. Robins shrilled at me from the neighbour’s mulberry tree, and chipmunks skittered along their urban game trails.
I set up a table and chairs and began living outdoors. At night, I slept on the back deck and heard the call of a Great Horned Owl and watched the acrobatics of little brown bats. I may live in a big city, but I finally found a spot where I can almost forget that.
