Editor's note: This article was written before social distancing measures were enforced by the Chief Public Health Office.
BRAE-DERBY, P.E.I. – From almost every vantage point in their Brae-Derby home, Sabina and Kees Kennema can gaze out on a vast but shifting landscape.
To get to that view, though, their visual journey first takes them through a virtual forest of plants, bushes and small trees.
It’s springtime all winter long in the Kennamas home because, as soon as the risk of fall frosts draws near, delicate potted plants are moved indoors where they occupy space in front of every main floor window, taking their turns catching the sun’s rays.
Outside, Kees notes, water is already running in the ditches and pussy willows are starting to burst forth from their branches. Spring is here (at least on the calendar) and it’s bringing life and hope, the semi-retired couple enthusiastically points out.
And that hope is needed, the Kennemas admit. They are practising social distancing while going on with their daily lives, like watering their indoor plants, going for walks to breathe in the fresh Island air and soak in the sunshine and tending to the many vegetables and flowers they’ve started in their Bluesky Farms small-scale backyard seasonal garden centre.
“There are so many beautiful things in life, and we’d better realize that because this is a temporary thing,” Kees said of the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) pandemic that’s spreading around the world.
Gardening tips:
- The Kennamas have a pantry freezer still stuffed with frozen vegetables from a small and practically labour-free private garden they planted last year. They offer tips on how Islanders can make use of a small section of their large lawns to do the same.
- After working up their soil and mixing in manure for fertilizer, they cover the small patch with woven and UV-resistant black tarps. The edges of the tarp are covered with soil. Small “X”-shaped slits are made in the tarp along the rows where the greenhouse-started plants, often in small clusters, can be inserted into the soil. Stones or blocks of word are placed between the rows to help keep the tarps in place until the plants are well established.
- The black tarps draw the sun’s heat, allowing the soil to warm up faster, making for a longer growing season. They also enable the soil to retain its moisture, and the woven material allows rainwater to soak through.
- Heat-seeking vegetables grow faster, produce more food which is kept out of the dirt. There’s no weeding or watering needed. The tarps can be taken up and used year-after-year.
He insists the pandemic is serious, and everyone must treat it that way, so that it will truly be only temporary.
But he feels there are things people can do to make self-isolation and social distancing more bearable: “Get some fun and get some pleasure back in life because it’s really needed.”
He recalls, when their children were young, they went to a cabin deep in the Ontario woods for two weeks. They had to lug in their own food, and there was no electricity. One of their sons started feeding a squirrel and it became a pet. They named him Frankie. They taught it tricks, like climbing a rope.
“Frankie was our TV,” he said.
“We have to get creative. When you sit at home, you have to do something neat with your husband, your wife, your kids and maybe others while realizing that we do have this social distancing.”
Tips from Sabina and Kees Kennema on things to do while still maintaining social distancing
From Kees
- Do something fun
- Eat well, get your best nutritious meals so that your immune system is good because if you have a better immune system the virus has less chance of attacking you.
- Respond to neighbours’ need: “Put it on your porch and they will get it.
From Sabina
- Teach a pet a new trick
- Use this time to learn something new, like a second language or brush up a language you haven’t used in a few years
- Learn the timetables: Make a competition with all the family members
- Try to make a difference on the end of the day. Maybe you clean something up that annoyed you for a long time. It makes you feel better on the end of the day.
- Stay positive and stay kind. Phone a neighbour or a senior and think of others wherever you can make a positive difference.
- Don’t forget to be kind and don’t forget that we live in a very amazing country.
The couple acknowledges they have their greenhouse to help occupy their time, starting vegetables and flowers. Soon, they will start separating the starter cells and are looking forward to the exponential growth that will provide.
“We are looking towards spring, and we are extremely positive thinkers regarding the spring,” Kees says.
“We live in the best country in the world; we live in the best province of Canada and we live in the best part of P.E.I."
Kees and Sabina emigrated to Canada from Holland and Switzerland, respectively. They operated a farm in Alberta before moving to Breslau, Ont., where they established a large-scale greenhouse. They “retired” to Brae-Derby in 2015.
“Go out and walk and see little details in nature. The birds are singing very differently already than they did two months ago,” Sabina says.
Having done a seasonal gardening show one day a week for 17 years on CTV Kitchener, giving tips on gardening and enjoying the outdoors just seems to come naturally to Sabina.
“Even if you don’t have the physical ability to go for a walk, open a window and put on a coat or sit on the balcony out of the wind and absorb the sunshine,” she adds.
“I think that is important; it makes you feel so much better.”
Kees remembers a remedy Holland recommended in the 1950s: “People with lung problems were sent to Switzerland to take up the sun’s rays and to breathe the good, fresh air ... and we have lots of good fresh air around here.”
