Most people have a hard enough time maintaining one garden. I have two. In two different countries and two very different environmental zones. I shuttle back and forth between Jamaica and Ohio on average every three months or so. It can be exhausting and I am in a constant state of missing Brent. There are days (like today) where I absolutely ache for him. And thats around the time when I start looking for flights back home (which I am currently doing now.) I think its safe to say that I travel more than the average person. I have a lot of little things I do that keep me sane and grounded. One of them is my unfortunate list obsession (I go through notebooks like Brent goes through his pretentiously pricey beer.) Another is gardening.

Jamaica of course is a gardeners paradise… it falls in zones 9 to 11 (though in the hills it can get much cooler) and there is not much I can’t grow here. On the other end of the spectrum is Ohio which falls in zones 5 or 6 and while my garden there is little more than a glorified window box of assorted herbs and bamboo it is my little escape. Gardening there is a helluva challenge (I am amazed I was able to keep my rosemary alive over winter).

When I first moved to Ohio one of the things that completely amazed me was all the many varieties of apples that are grown there. Apples are serious business in Ohio. Growing up in Jamaica all of our apples were imported and ordinary. I never counted them among my favorites in terms of fruit. That is until I met Brent. Now I can tell you for certain that all apples are not equal. I will forever sing the praises of honeycrisp and despite myself, I find I look forward to the orchard seasons there.

In an attempt to have the best of both worlds, I started growing an apple tree three years ago. It now stands about 7 feet tall. Of course its much too early to know whether or not I will be successful in getting it to fruit (this is not exactly the right climate for them) and most of my friends think I am nuts but I have started growing more apple trees. I have four apple seedlings total right now… two are only 4 inches tall (the other two are about 2 inches) but I am hopefully. All four were started from regular apple seeds.

Three of the four apple tree seedlings

I’m also growing Scotch Bonnet (at the request of an aunt)… hopefully in another few months they will go from that……

…….to this!

I’m gonna miss my little garden when I leave Jamaica at the end of this month.