Pregnant Nuns and Garden Stakes

Lessons From Our Childhood Halloweens

Despite the (all too short) sunny fun of summer, fall is my favourite season; there’s nothing like a crisp, clear autumn day in Newfoundland, the whole landscape bursting into colour. Growing up, Halloween was my favourite holiday. Christmas was all about being good for the whole year (yeah, right) in order to get presents, but Halloween was about throwing out the rules for a day - we stayed out and up past our bedtime, we took candy from strangers and we hid our faces so other people didn’t see who we were.

Our Halloween costumes probably wouldn’t be considered Instagram-worthy today, but they got the job done and we were able to fit our snowsuits underneath…because NL. The costumes were usually homemade or pulled together from items from around our house or our grandmother’s (mama’s) house, a little bit mummer-style. There was the pair of children’s cowboy boots that have been worn by more siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews than I could count; random costume jewelry from mama’s dresser; mostly, it was mom pulling out her sewing machine to pull together a costume with patterns and whatever fabric was on hand or on sale and often repurposing or redesigning some clothing and accessories from around the house.

One year mom did the ultimate repurposing - while 8 months pregnant she dressed up as a nun.

As an adult I don’t get excited about Halloween anymore, I wish I did, but kids’ holidays do little for me. Still, mom’s halloween habits have taught me a few lessons about creativity resourcefulness, lessons I am applying to my attempts and gardening and landscaping. Instead of always going out and buying new stuff and specialist items, I ask myself: WWMD (what would mom do)? Use what I already have.

For example:

• I have been learning to save the seeds of vegetables and flowers so I can grow more next year.
• I discovered Japanese Knotweed (which everyone seems to hate) can be cut and left to dry/cure, at which point it makes excellent and lightweight garden stakes. Also, great tinder for a fire.
• I now compost, so I don’t need to buy as much of it.
• I realized that I can probably terrace parts of my backyard by trimming most of the wildly excessive wild plum trees down to living stakes for build low retaining walls.
• I learned how to make biochar, so now when I have large wood trimmings I turn them into biochar, which helps to store carbon, enriches the soil I add it to, and (because it absorbs 27X its weight it water) it will help my trees and plants make it through drought.

Creativity isn’t just about making something look nice, it’s about creatively using what you’ve got to get the job done.