We all lived through the nightmare of the early 2020s – yes, the pandemic. It was indeed a most traumatic experience for the whole planet Earth. But this is not the place where I am going to dwell on that aspect of the pandemic. I would not have expected it – but some of us were truly able to make lemonade from the lemons that were dumped down on us. Here I will talk about it as My Pandemic Project.
About the first part of 2020 – the horror of it, you will have to wait to read about that in another piece when I will make available sometime : what I call My COVID Year. But coming out of all that, we move on and set the stage to June of 2020. Everything was shut down – no place to go, no book clubs, no celebrations of any kind. It forced me to look for something to engage myself and spend my time.
Over the years- I would say 20 years – I had snippets, notes, articles that appeared in various newsletters – pertaining to horticulture. All these writings were stored on my computer. I had often thought of putting them together in some sort of formal way. I had even drafted in my gardening journal the titles of the chapters for a future book. I had just had the experience of self-publishing two books of fiction. So, with nothing better to do, I started collecting the articles and organizing them. Over time, I decided that I wanted to address it to the gardeners who were newbies. So, I called it The Garden Primer.
My motivation in putting it together was to focus on all the things I wish I had known when I started gardening. That had been, by now, three decades ago. That was my starting point. Often, it is suggested that we start with something we know. So, it had to be a primer about gardening in the Midwest of USA – that is what I knew.
As the days unfolded, focusing on this writing became an anchor of my days. It seemed to be that oasis of positive energy in the desert which we were living through – the daily litany of stories from across the world of humans dealing with the most virulent organism we had encountered in a century. This was the escape for me. Researching plants, making sure I got their botanical names right – their habit, their season of bloom – the list went on.
I really had no idea where it was going to lead – I just tried to cover the various components – trees and shrubs, the perennials, how to use annuals. One segway that I especially liked was delving into Gardening Styles. Of course, to do this writing, I had to read a lot. I read on topics I had not explored before. This reading was purposeful, and I had no guilt about spending so much time on it.
I had been in contact with the publisher where I had published my fiction books. They were interested in this book. So, I had sent a proposal which they accepted. It helped me continue the writing in that I knew where this manuscript was going.
It being a garden book, it had to have illustrations. As I could not have anyone come to my garden for a photoshoot, I decided I was going to use my own photographs as illustrations. At any other time in my life, the story would have been different. But here it was another exciting aspect to delve into – looking through all my pictures, trying to figure out which I wanted to include and where to place them.
Many may wonder – how did I give myself a deadline for this project? It turned out that my mother was turning 90 in 2020. It seemed like a cool idea to dedicate the book to her. Also, as the months went by, and we started having hopes of a vaccine in 2021, I knew one thing. If I did not stay focused and finish the book, correct galley proofs and get it out to the publisher, my life would swallow up this project. That gave it an urgency which would not happen at any other time.
All of this resulted in me being able to make this a reality:
The Garden Primer: A Guide to Gardening in the Midwest for the Novice Gardener was published by Authorhouse in 2021 – a 258-page book! Did I expect this to happen? Of course not!
But the most unique part of the Pandemic Project was that in just getting it to the finish line, it was already a success in so many ways. I dedicated it to my mother who was turning 90 years – I felt so happy I could give her such a unique gift. And through the horror of that first year of COVID, it was my therapy, something that gave me purpose and meaning to get through that nightmare.
The only reason to share this is for that one lesson that I learned. Even when facing a very difficult time in one’s life, the only way forward is to do something positive. Something that accepts the true reality of life – that there is always the bitter, the unpleasant to deal with, along with the good times. But even in the worst situations, one can find something sweet, something to help us get through it.