In India, not all of us are real gardeners. We generally have a mali, a gardener, who does most of the digging, weeding, planting, sowing and watering. All we do is the planning and few of us get our hands dirty. But in Canada, where Marlene Monteath stays, things are decidedly different.
Marlene has been an avid gardener for close to 22 years and does all the hard work, including the digging, weeding, sowing and watering, herself. She spends at least six hours a week tending to her garden. “And that is just time spent on maintaining the garden all through the summer season that stretches from April to late October. Planning begins in March, when it is still cold and I plant seeds in smaller pots indoors. They take a few days to sprout, and by the time summer sets in, these are ready to be planted into the soil outdoors.”
“It is time well-spent,” Marlene says with a deep sigh of satisfaction. A daily half-hour of watering and weeding is required to keep the flowers and vegetables growing lush and green.
“It helps me to destress after a hard day at work,” confesses Marlene, who has been living in Canada since more than two decades. Her garden also keeps memories of Indian herbs alive and she uses these regularly in her cooking. With much pride, she talks about her curry patta plant, growing lush in a pot and which she uses regularly to temper her sambar. She procured it 10 years ago, and places it outdoors in summers, but carts it inside during the harsh Canadian winter, when everything is cloaked in a blanket of snow.
Marlene is from Thane, the city next to Mumbai, while some of her neighbours are from Punjab and Haryana. They all grow vegetables in abundance and there is an unwritten law that whatever goes over one’s fence into the neighbour’s side belongs to the neighbour, says Marlene, her eyes twinkling.
Between these Indian families, they make sure that plenty of familiar vegetables from back home appear regularly on their dining tables. Fenugreek grows in abundance in most homes, and plenty of the families living there plant vegetables in their backyards, converting those into small farms where rows of methi and tomatoes, beans and bhindi can be spotted growing, apart from spinach and kale, and plenty more.
“Yes, of course, everything is available locally as well, but the joy of eating your own fresh, organic, home-grown vegetables is hard to beat,” says Marlene.
Methi is so widely grown by the Indians in Canada that it has now become a staple with the local Canadian population as well and is much sought-after as a health food. The Monteaths’ garden yields them a regular supply of cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, chillies and bell peppers. “Some vegetables thrive only in the sun, and areas of the house yard that don’t get the sun give us plenty of herbs such as fresh sage and oregano, parsley, coriander and basil,” she says. All through the summer, she relishes the chutneys she makes from them, especially from her curry patta plant.
One of Marlene’s favourite pastime is to put up a hammock in her garden every summer so that she can lie there to soak in nature’s bounties. “And from this vantage point, I can happily admire my own handiwork,” she adds, a note of merriment in her voice.
Working hard in her garden has given her another perspective; that of appreciating the produce she buys from her local vegetable market. “I now realise what a labour of love growing vegetables can be. I am grateful to the farmers who make it possible for our tables to have so much abundance. That’s the reason why I now buy only what I know I will consume and never waste any food,” she says.
In India, many of us don’t seem to realise how lucky we are; our sunny clime allows us to enjoy our gardens all year round and to grow all manners of vegetables on whatever land is available to us. On our sunny terraces, we can grow some more.
Marlene maintains a lush lawn, and has skilfully converted a two-feet strip running along the walls of her house into a vegetable patch where her vegetables grow. As soon as it snows, the grass is hidden, “But when the snow melts, it takes just about a week for the grass to shake off its sickly yellow colour and take on a lush green hue. It is a sight that has never ceased to amaze me,” says Marlene, her voice full of gratitude for the wonders of nature and of God.
“As a kid in Thane, I remember breaking off twigs, then pulling off the leaves and digging the stem into the ground, waiting for new leaves to grow,” she recalls. Perhaps that is what gave her this love for gardening.
Reena Singh has more than 37 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent nine years.
Thank you Reena. You have so beautifully captured my love of nature and passion for gardening.
Marlene
Lovely. My son who bought his home in Montreal recently has suddenly become a Gardner too. When he shifted into his house in June end, next day corporation people visited to inform that 5 trees were dead and needed to be cut and replaced within this summer. There any tree cut must be replaced by planting another tree. It’s a costly affair. My son got the trees cut and removed by the professionals but decided to plant new trees on his own. He studied many videos on YouTube on how to plant the trees as these three are already 8/10 feet tall but still very thin and young. He dug deep holes and planted the trees over two days 🙂
He chose to plant trees that attract birds rather than go for fruit trees that we felt could be useful. He also made a kitchen garden where tomatoes, zucchini are already growing. I am now looking forward to ho their next summer and enjoy the gardening.
My son who had never planted a plant till June has become enthusiastic Gardner and finds its very satisfying.
Nita – your sons love of gardening is inspiring. It’s really heartwarming to hear such stories. We have to nurture and preserve our earth which gives back so bountifully.
Nita your sons love of gardening is heartwarming. Nature returns bountifully when we nurture and care about the world we live in.
Beautifully expressed, Marlene’s love for gardening can be seen from the lush grown veggies and flowers blooming in her garden
Thanks Anuja. You too are a nature lover. I enjoy your WhatsApp posts of flowers and nature landscapes.
Thanks Anuja – You too are a true nature lover which is apparent from your posts on WhatsApp.
Very well written and expressed Marlene’s love for nature and her gardening skills,which we also get to see from the pictures of various flowers and veggies which she sends on what’s app group , kudos Marlene, keep it up.
Thanks Pooja for appreciating my posts on WhatsApp and this beautifully written article by Reena.
Reena, you have captured the love Marlene has for her garden so beautifully. I can understand how difficult it must be to maintain a garden in Canada, where everything is covered in snow in winter. And a true gardener has to start all over again in spring.
Thanks Cora. You too are a nature lover and have a lovely garden -Reena has captured our love of gardening beautifully.
Beautifully written. Portrays Marlene’s creativity and love for nature. It’s amazing to see her nurture the seedlings to fully grown plants with their fruits in such a limited time.
Appreciate and like the way you have spelt out Marlene’s efforts in creating Greenery in an otherwise harsh environment. Gr8 work Marlene. Surely a Motivation to me.
Bernadine
Thank you Bernadine. Hoping you will visit next summer and come see my garden in person.
Enjoyed reading this article. Inspires me to grow my own vegetables too! Thankyou.
That’s right, Jyotsna. Marlene is an old hand at gardening. Spending six hours weekly in the garden is great. I wish I would at least spend just a third of that time tending to my own garden.
Thanks Reena