Most people would say I was a typical child. In retrospect, I see my childhood as one like no other. I was given the opportunity to live in two different worlds; the city during the school year and the country at the lake during the summer. I don’t know when or where I first became infected with Lyme Disease and it’s Co-Infections. It could have been many, many years, even decades, before my first onset of symptoms in July 2004. The dreaded bite of the vampire could have happened in the city while playing in the fields and parks or even in our own back yard. Having lived my summers in Northern Wisconsin, I could have first been infected there. I will never know.
The beauty of nature is fast becoming a deadly battle ground. We are the prey to an insect as small as the period at the end of this sentence.
To this day, I would consider myself a country girl 100 percent. I even ‘earned’ the nickname, “Jungle Jane,” after introducing my city loving husband, Vince, to the ways of a nature loving country life. He grew up in the city with little exposure to the kind of outdoor, nature involved activities I knew of and loved! Fishing, skiing, sailing, canoeing, bugs, worms, swamps, frogs, bats, mosquitos, horse flies, deer flies and for us, my life changing TICK.
As a young adult, while living in Georgia for 11 years, my strong passion for gardening began. With the lengthened growing season, it was an enlightening way for me to spend my then, lonely days. Although I had to deal with the possible Copperhead sleeping in the ivy, I found my gardens to be not only beautiful to the eye, but also warming to my soul. I would ‘play’ diligently among the flowers, pulling weeds as the beautiful birds and other small creatures scurried around me. Not once did it occur to me that I was ‘playing’ among vampires.
In the late 1990′s, I moved back to Wisconsin, and purchased a modest home on a piece of land just shy of an acre. To some, the large piece of land only appeared an enormous amount of grass to mow. To me, however, it was my empty canvas. I quickly started to sketch out plans for what would soon become my perennial cottage style gardens. I buried myself in the gardens. It was my sanctuary. I loved to watch things grow. Learning the beloved gardener’s sport of ’SPLIT and DIVIDE’, it wasn’t long before the grassy areas were transformed into cottage style gardens surrounding the house. I learned to respect the fuzzy bumble bees. It was their hard work and dedication to pollinate each and every flower that helped to keep the gardens flourishing. The butterflies and fancy moths were breathtaking as they floated through the air from one blossom to the next also pollinating. Little did I know, among the beauty was also a deadly beast, a vampire: The Tick.
These tiny ticks have become Vampires in the Garden
For Mother’s Day in 2008, my kids and husband ‘gave me’ a vegetable garden. I had never grown a vegetable garden. The only thing I knew about vegetable gardening was watering and picking my parent’s garden when they were out-of-town. ”Remember Debbie, water UNDER the plants, not on top of the plants! It is much better for them!” A lesson I practice to this day even with my flower gardens. My Mom, being an avid composter, loved her dirt! She called it her “black gold.” Learning these things and more from my parents helped me with my new gift, my quest and project: a vegetable garden. I have to admit, Vince quickly became the farmer in this project! On weekends, I would find him sitting on a small stool in the vegetable garden, pulling weeds all the while taking inventory of our new crops! The first growing season he accidentally pulled up all the sugar snap peas thinking they were weeds. Quickly forgiven. We all make mistakes!
Setting up our Vegetable Garden
Our flourishing Vegetable Garden later that season.
The 'fruits' of our hard labor
Even while continuing my long treatment process to hopefully one day put my Chronic Lyme Disease in remission, if not cure it, I still enjoy the gardens. People ask me, “How can you spend so much time outside? Why do you subject yourself to the ticks knowing the damage they have already done to you? Aren’t you afraid of the ticks?” The questions go on and will most likely continue. My answer is quite simple: “I love the outdoors. I love nature. I love gardening. Yes, the tiny vampires in the gardens, known as ticks, that infected me with Lyme Disease have changed my life, but I can’t stop living because of it. You must educate yourself and protect yourself. If I stop doing what I love to do, then the TICK wins…. and I don’t want the TICK to win.”
As I continue my research, I am finding more and more insects are carriers of lyme disease and different bacterial infections that are very harmful, if not fatal to their hosts whether they be human or animal. Mosquitos, Deer Flies, Horse Flies, Flees, Lice, almost all blood sucking insects can carry and transmit some very harmful diseases. Educate yourself. Protect yourself. But don’t stop living. We have this beautiful world…. ENJOY IT ~ Just watch out for the Vampires in the Gardens!
I refuse to live in a plastic bubble. My 'Bubble' is the outdoors being one with nature.