A fruitful life planting
Margaret Deer, 94, has been planting all her life, and she still loves to do it. Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
When speaking of her vegetable garden, Margaret Deer will say that the four dozen tomato, cucumber, and pepper plants she grows herself is all she can do anymore, showing how a vast swath of her backyard used to be covered by a huge variety of plants growing all over.
“It was all planted, and I used to make preserves, and I would sell it at the harvest fair here in town,” said Deer.
How well her garden is growing is still quite a feat for someone who will be turning 95 in October, especially doing so all on her own.
That starts in March, when she dries the seeds collected from the nicest vegetables she harvested on her windowsill. She then plants them indoors, to give them a head start before they are planted outdoors.
“Why should I buy them when I can already have them?” said Deer of using seeds from the harvest.
Margaret Deer planted four dozen plants in her vegetable garden this year, with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers her three mainstays at the moment. Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
The only kind of help she gets is from the Waste Management Department, which has donated compost for her garden for the last few years - she bought and mixed manure herself prior to that.
“I appreciate that very much. That’s why I have beautiful results,” said Deer. Indeed, bright red tomatoes, big peppers, and very appetizing cucumbers are all over the garden. She still makes things like ketchup for herself, and freezes a lot of the rest.
Growing up on a farm in Kahnawake, planting was a matter of survival, not just a hobby, she said.
“If we want to survive, we should know how to plant. My mother always said, if you know how to plant, you’ll know how to survive. And I believe deeply in that, whether you fail or not, just keep on going, and eventually it just comes naturally to you,” said Deer.
To her, it’s very important that kids be encouraged to learn how to grow.
“It’s worrisome, what’s going on in the world,” said Deer.
Some of what Margaret Deer has planted is also on her porch, for easy access. Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
“It’s never too early to teach children, let them go in the in the garden and play with the dirt, give them seeds, let them throw them around. And when they grow show it to them and encourage them.”
To Deer, planting has always been a way of life, and a way to hold a deep connection to the world around her.
“It’s a spiritual thing to plant. It makes me feel so good when I see my first plant coming out of the ground in the spring. I do believe there’s spirituality in growing your own plants,” said Deer.
“You’re so happy to see your plant flourish, you just want to keep on doing it. You can’t beat your first tomato of the season, or your first cucumber,” said Deer.
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“I kiss my cucumbers. When the first one comes out, I kiss it. I say to myself, if the neighbours see me, they’ll say I’m nuts. But I want to show my gratitude to the earth, and that’s what it’s all about.”
