I know I described learning to hang dry my clothes as the “classic Grandma Challenge,” but I think I may have been mistaken.  In my post about laundry I wrote that my Grandma Pickies’ clothesline stood as strong as ever and ready to use.  I was wrong.  

While visiting my Grandpa last week, I decided to take a walk to the side of the house where I expected to find my Grandma’s clothesline.  Imagine my shock when I discovered it was no longer there.  My Grandpa said he had taken it down when it became clear my Grandma no longer had the strength to hang dry her clothes.  I felt sad that I had become so disconnected from my Grandpa over the past few years that I did not even realize he had taken it down.

Thankfully, I am finding ways to reconnect.  I know for certain that my Grandpa Pickies’ garden is not a figment of my childhood memories.  I have kicked off my shoes and rolled up my pant legs numerous times this summer as I followed my Grandpa’s instructions to get to work picking mounds of corn, cucumbers and most recently bags and bags of vine ripened tomatoes.  He has maintained a garden on the very same plot since he bought his property as a young man.  Perhaps it would be more appropriate to label gardening as the “classic Grandma Challenge” or rather the “classic GrandPA Challenge.”

I have one big problem with this challenge.  I do not have a green thumb.  Let me say that again in more dramatic fashion.  I DO NOT HAVE A GREEN THUMB!  I have tried really hard to not exaggerate for the sake of a good story when writing my blog.  Unfortunately, it is no exaggeration to say that my thumb is the Grim Reaper of the plant world.  It has been the kiss of death for every plant which has had the unfortunate luck of coming my way.

Despite my history of foliage doom, I planted my first, small garden this year.

One sunny day in May I found myself filling in a large hole my oldest had dug and filled with water to create a muddy pond.  I should have made him fill it in but I did not think about that before I sent him inside to wash up.  It seems it was providential because while working to fill the hole, I discovered it was a naturally sunny spot in the yard.  As I watched the sun dance across the freshly tilled dirt, it dawned on me that it may be the perfect spot for a garden. 

In a moment of earthly delirium, I forgot all about my Grim Reaper thumb.

The next morning I found myself at a local nursery buying starter plants of tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, strawberries, watermelons, red cabbages, cilantro, basil and one organic zucchini plant to round it all out.  By mid July, I was hip deep in a long row of tomato plants along with the other vegetables I had planted.

While weeding my garden one afternoon, I gasped when I discovered a plethora of baby cucumbers stretching to life.  It took my breath away to know I had managed to coax a vegetable from the ground.  I was ecstatic on the day a couple of the cucumbers matured.  I ate one and saved the other for my husband.  When he came home from work, I excitedly waved it in his face and said, “Eat this!  You can taste our dirt!  It is delicious!”

I managed to grow a dozen or more cucumbers before they succumbed to a white mold.  I picked four zucchini squash along the way.  I have quite a few onions waiting to be picked and the pepper plants produced a pepper or two.  The squirrels ate all of the strawberries and a hungry woodchuck gobbled up the red cabbages along with my neighbors’ broccoli and carrots.  The watermelon plants produced six or more lovely striped fruit but then died and rotted.  I enjoyed making a couple of homemade pizzas with the basil before I killed it and adding the cilantro to fresh guacamole.

Despite my marginal success, my Grim Reaper thumb still had its way with the garden.  I did not know that tomatoes and other plants do not like Walnut trees.  Shortly after my tomato plants matured and were bearing loads of green fruit, they began to wilt one by one.  My neighbor suggested I call the local extension program offered through Michigan State University.  After conferring with a Master Gardener on staff, we concluded that my plants were experiencing ”walnut rot.”  Walnut trees carry a toxin in their roots called juglone and it killed all ten of my tomato plants.

How am I going to redeem my Grim Reaper thumb?  Over the course of the next few weekends I am going to move my garden and begin preparing for next year.  I am going to try and try again until my Grim Reaper thumb becomes a hard earned green thumb because there is something that just seems so logically sustainable about learning to grow my own food.

My Grandpa Pickies told me to till up the ground and to plant some clover.  The clover will grow in the spring and when I till it under it will act as a green fertilizer.  My Grandpa is also going to get me some manure from one of his neighbors to add to the mix.

Gardening is my next official Grandma Challenge.

Did your grandparents grow a garden in their younger years?  Do they now?  How about you?  Is there a sunny spot in your yard that you can till up to make room for a small vegetable garden in the Spring?  Do you have any gardening tips?  Your tips and stories have proven to be invaluable each time I take on a new challenge!

As part of my two week break from blogging, I spent three days at a monastery called, St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan.  There is almost no quieter place on earth than spending time in the company of monks.

It was just what I needed.

From the moment I arrived until the minute I left, I found myself pondering one thing - the fact that my life has grown too noisy (again).  I knew very little about the blogging world prior to starting my own and while this has been a deeply satisfying journey, it does not fit well into the other parts of my life.

And so it is with a true sense of sadness that I have decided to close down My Grandma Was Green. 

I have struggled with this decision because on the surface it seems my reason is as simple as my life has grown too busy and full.  And in the American culture where a full schedule is praised, personal busyness hardly seems a reason to step away from something.  However, I have discovered that busyness can be and often has been a source of disconnectedness and pain in my life.  Consequently, busyness hardly lends itself to creating a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.

I never took time to define the word sustainability while writing my blog but I think I have started to form a working definition for my own life.  I believe living sustainably means taking only that which I need to live a meaningful, generous and connected life. 

In order to do this I need to be diligent in learning how to distinguish between wants and needs - no small feat in a culture that is saturated with advertising aimed at turning every single thing into a need!  I realize my definition is somewhat ambiguous because the words meaningful, generous and connected can be defined in a variety of ways.  However, when I view sustainability in this context, it puts me on a path of wanting to take less and give more.  It breaks down the walls of my everyday, ordinary life and forces me to consider the well-being of others in each decision I make.

I seem to have a passion for “s” words such as simplicity and slowness.  I am now committed to moving forward in my journey with another “s” word to pursue - sustainability.  Each of these words is connected in so many ways but the tie that binds them together for me is relationships.  I believe I can pursue deeper and more meaningful relationships with self, God, my family, friends, neighbors, community and the world if I commit myself to simplicity, slowness and also sustainability. 

Therefore, I am going to persist with the changes I have made and I will continue to make more changes in the future.  Only now I will have to record my journey in the old-fashioned way - in the pages of my journal, through conversations with friends and family and in the quiet moments of my days.

I am not sure which part of this short journey has been the most important - recommitting myself to a slower pace, my growing awareness of important changes I need to make toward a more sustainable lifestyle, or reconnecting with my grandparents and my own history.  I guess each one is important in its own way.

If you are interested in learning from and connecting to your grandparents or any older person who is significant to you and/or learning about sustainability by looking to the past, I would encourage you to make use of the extensive questionnaire developed by Virginia Allee called, A Family History Questionnaire.  It proved to be an invaluable resource in asking my grandparents to share their story.  I trust you will find the same.

Thank you for all of your support in this endeavor.  I have learned a lot and will continue to be inspired by the stories I have read and by those individuals who are making great changes through the blogging world.

Goodbye for now,
April

Today is an anniversary of sorts for My Grandma Was Green.  I have been writing this blog for exactly three months and have managed to see my way through twelve Grandma Challenges. 

It is time for me to pause.

The chair in the picture is my favorite reading chair.  It is tucked into a corner in my living room next to a table with a lamp.  I love to sit in this chair at night when the house is quiet and my kids are in bed.  It is a precious moment of the day when I can read, reflect and rest.

I have not been able to sit in my favorite chair nearly as much since starting My Grandma Was Green.  I am okay with that since I knew this would be a season of action.  However, I do feel the need to take a little break in order to rest, regroup and reflect on what I have learned so far.

Stay tuned for for my next post on Tuesday, October 7.  I will share some of my reflections and return with a new set of Grandma Challenges as well as some updates on the ones I have already implemented. 

In the meantime, please continue to collect your best “grandma” stories and dig around in the archives if you are new to my site.  Although I am taking a little break, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a note at april@mygrandmwasgreen.com  I will still check my site and take time to respond to your comments and stories!