Getting and giving back to the land

Saturday was all about the arthropods with the Bee & Garden Conference in Minden and the Gardening Spring Forum & Expo in Gardnerville.

Worm wrangler Cathy Fields talked to the folks in Gardnerville about raising earthworms, which help aerate the soil. Both the worms and bees are pretty important in successfully raising crops, whether in a backyard or across acres.

Carson Valley is still farm country, and people move here to enjoy having enough room to plant a garden or three.

For the first few generations that people of European descent lived here, they were almost entirely dependent on what they could grow to survive.

The arrival of the railroad in 1907 connected the Valley to the rest of the world, allowing butter, beef and grain to be shipped out and all sorts of things to be shipped back.

But even into the 1960s, fresh produce was in short supply here. We know one young lady who grew up using ketchup on a BLT, because of a lack of T.

Even when storms close the passes and we get a little taste of those past days, there’s still a veritable cornucopia available in the grocery aisles rendering gardening more of a hobby than a necessity.

But the enthusiasm for that hobby was on full display Saturday where around 150 people gathered between the two events to learn more or share their passions.

Cultivating plants and other living things is important not just to the wellbeing of the planet around us, but for our internal environment, as well. Working in the garden, whether weeding or planting, is a great way to quiet the din that comes at us every day and provides a sense of accomplishment.

There are many things occurring in the world that we cannot control. Every day some new atrocity comes to light and is amplified to the 8 billion people inhabiting our world.

But in the garden, we can turn that off for a time, enjoying a little bit of beauty in our own corner of the globe and learning the lessons only nature can teach us.

One of those lessons came on Saturday night when the storm reminded us that it’s way too early to plant.