Meet Vahe Simonyan
I’ve always had a fascination with plants and a strong preference for fruit trees, but I was never much of a gardener prior to my introduction to our Throop garden.
In 2012, I moved out to live on my own for the first time. I finally had the funds to support myself. Fortunately, the apartment I moved into had a small balcony positioned perfectly to get plenty of sunlight. Naturally, one of the first items on my agenda was to recruit my father to help build a wall mounted base so I could start filling the balcony with potted plants. This was my first attempt at growing anything; I had some successes, but they were accompanied by failures as well. One of my proudest achievements was planting, with no experience, an apricot seed and watching it sprout, then grow over the years. I’m happy to say the tree is about four feet tall now and still growing! |
Sure enough, after experiencing the garden and its potential, something kept drawing me back, a therapeutic sense of serenity when surrounded by the beauty I was helping to create. "
It wasn’t until May of 2017 that I was introduced to the Throop garden. I remember the first day I showed up to volunteer--I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t even know if the work would interest me. I was most comfortable weeding, as I didn’t want to risk making mistakes. Sure enough, after experiencing the garden and its potential, something kept drawing me back, a therapeutic sense of serenity when surrounded by the beauty I was helping to create. Since then, I’ve made an effort to be in the garden every week. [I’ve learned to do much more than weed, including pruning, planting, watering, mulching and harvesting. Working in a permaculture garden has revealed nature’s secrets for building rich, healthy soil.]
You can usually find me there every Sunday morning into the afternoon. I would love to be there during the week as well, but I work full time in post-production. I prefer Sundays because there is such a wonderful atmosphere when the church is full of life, whether newcomers seeing the church for the first time or members walking through the garden. There is always a positive aura. |