Mom and daughter team up on book to inspire gratitude in gardening

A Calgary woman and her mom have written a book designed to get people feeling grateful and inspired by the act of gardening.

"This is your book. This is your personal growing guide. This is your personal gardening memoir," horticulturist Donna Balzer told The Homestretch on Thursday.

It's called the Three Year Gardener's Gratitude Journal and Balzer, along with her daughter Chelsie Anderson, wrote it in a daily journal format.

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"This is just one line a day for three years, so you can reflect back on what happened last year, the year before. 'When was that first tomato? What was that first bug? When did I hear a frog?' All those little things you record, and then they are right at your fingertips," Balzer said.

Anderson, who is also The Homestretch's gardening columnist, said gratitude became the book's underlying theme.

"We are just endlessly grateful for the growing conditions. People like to complain about growing conditions in Canada, but I think we have it pretty good here," Anderson said.

"We have this nice clay soil that holds the minerals, so we just wanted to share that idea with everyone. We just want people to kind of reflect."

What am I going to do next?

Balzer said it can be a planning guide as well.

"It's the little checkup, what are you going to do this month? What are you going to develop? What are you going to build? I am constantly thinking about what I am going to do next."

And working together on the project ended up being a positive thing.

"I think it's been really good for us because we have been able to come together on this common ground. It's been really good to get to know my mom in a different way. It turns out she's as fast-paced as I am so we got this book done in a year."

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With files from The Homestretch