Gardening is a lifetime journey. Some of my earliest memories are from the times spent at the community garden plot that my family had in UBC and getting a buzz cut underneath the grape vine in our tiny backyard.
Throughout my whole life I’ve experienced different challenges. One of which is having a congenital heart condition which severely limits my ability to play sports. Over the course of my life I’ve had 5+ open heart surgeries, 7 different surgeries related to my pacemaker, 3 cardioversions plus multitude of other cardiac related procedures.
Because I struggle with energy level my gardening style focuses on low effort/energy and ease of access while maximizing yield/harvest.
Another huge challenge was not being diagnosed with autism when I was a child. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years highly unregulated and not understanding why I was so different compared to everyone else.
When I’m in the garden or in a field surrounded by plants, that’s when I feel most relaxed. The effect of the smell of the plants (especially if they are food crops) combined with the warmth of the sun is a place of peace
When I’m feeling really unregulated and it’s in the middle of the summer I’ll start digging into the soil with my bare hands. The top layer of the soil is hot, dry and potentially a little crunchy while layers underneath are cool, moist, soft and very soothing. The contrast of two sensations has an indescribable effect on bringing me back to my normal levels.
After moving out to Chilliwack and working in the hospitality industry for 15+ years I decided I wanted to have the ability to spend more time and focus on what’s important, my family. Svetlana, my wife, is the one who initially recognized my love of growing and pushed me to share my passion with other people