Mastering a garden of stones

I ran around the neighborhood and offered cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden. 

It was difficult to believe that just a couple of months ago, my first summer in Massachusetts had been like a fortress siege.

…Spring came early, in the middle of April. I planted seedlings of cucumbers and tomatoes, as is usually done by Siberian gardeners.

In mid-may, I carefully moved all the plants to the ground. Soon after, bad weather set in. Three days in a row it rained cold and the wind blew. Almost all my plants were dead.

After talking with colleagues at my volunteer work, I learned that the garden season in New England  begins at the end of May just like in Siberia. Can you imagine my surprise?

I didn’t want to bother with the seedlings any more, so I threw the seeds into the ground.

Despite the fact that we watered the garden regularly and methodically, everything rose only after another rain. Along with the sprouts of cucumbers and tomatoes, stones appeared on the surface of the gardens. I couldn’t believe it: “ I picked them up when I was turning the soil over!”

You know, I used to think I had a green thumb. There, in faraway Siberia, I grew everything I planted. Former sister-in-law always said that we didn’t  need to look at the lunar calendar, if Lianka plants, it will grow.

And here, the strange weather and the stone garden sabotaged the very fact of my presence. It seemed to me that I had not moved completely, leaving my vaunted green thumb in Russia. I felt that successful gardening would help me adapt. And I didn’t want to give up, either.

Stubbornly, day after day, I watered the vegetable beds, weeded the grass, and collected stones after the rain.

… A couple of months later, I ran around the neighborhood and offered cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden. We gave them to friends, colleagues, relatives of relatives.

Sometimes I had a desire to take the bags of vegetables out on the road and hang a sign “Help yourself”.

I was happy that the “battle”  with the “new place” was over. I was confident in myself and my green thumb again. I accepted compliments about the vegetable harvest with a smile and continued to collect stones after each rain.