Celebrating over 50 years of Gardening

Photo circa 1982...Farmed  One Acre for 14 years

   Gardening at Mrs. Lula May Swann's two acres for 12 years, across the street from Palm Beach Junior College (now Palm Beach State College). I hitchhiked into Lake Worth on August 12, 1977, with my Shepherd-Collie dog Osa.


 Gardening has been my passion since my kindergarten teacher at Hammel Elementary School ( the actor Anthony Quinn attended this same school decades before) in East Los Angeles, California, gave me and the other students some pinto beans, which we placed between a paper towel inside  of a glass jar filled with water. A few days later shoots and roots appeared to my astonishment: I have been gardening ever since.

Yet, my initial inspiration was my abuelita (grandmother) doña Nacha (nick name for Ignacia or Agnes in English), who passionately planted flowers and trees all over her yard in the hills of Tijuana, Mexico, (located on the border with San Diego, California). Doña Nacha kept her yard, which was all soil, and her cardboard shack with dirt floors, well swept and clean. Our house had a corrugated metal roof, no running water, and no electricity; we had water piped in from a cistern on top of the hill and we had an out-house near the house. It was paradise to me. It wasn't Voluntary Simplicity: It was enhanced poverty. We were poor, but clean. My abuelita was the apple of my eye.

 But my first teacher, who taught me to read, was not university educated; it was my Mexican Cora Indigenous semi-illiterate mother, Guadalupe Cedano Escobar.  She converted to Pentecostalism a few years before I was born. My mother taught me to read la Santa Biblia (the Holy Bible) in Spanish when I was three or four years old (No Goldilocks and Cinderella). We were raised strict Pentecostals without a television in an ocean of nominal Mexican Catholics. We heard and told a lot of stories, mainly biblical stories. I have been telling stories ever since I was around 5 years; at first, mainly biblical stories in Spanish and later in English. Today, I share stories of my travel experiences and stories from around the world with a comic twist.

After graduating from San Pedro High School, California, in 1973, I took a year off. I worked odd jobs.  I attended Cerritos College in Norwalk, California, in 1974.  I minored in pre-law and recreation. In 1976, I hitch- hiked  to Denver, Colorado, with my dog Osa. I took courses at Metropolitan City College and Denver University ( I received my Paddy and YMCA Scuba diving cerfticate in Denver). In August of 1977, I hitch- hiked out of Denver with Osa and her 10 puppies. I arrived in Lake Worth in 1977. I again took up surfing, tennis, swimming, cycling, vollebyall, and table tennis. A few years later, I received AA degrees at Palm Beach Community College in languages (Spanish and French) and the arts (Theatre), with a minor in marine biology.

 I hitch- hiked to Alaska in 1980, and I attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. I returned to Lake Worth in 1981. From Lake Worth, I  travelled throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. As an adult, I have lived in  San Pedro, California; Denver, San Francisco, New York City, Dillon, Montana; Fairbanks, Alaska; San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico; and Acaponeta, Nayarit, Mexico. Lake Worth has been my home for over 35 years.

Reading inspired me to hitch- hike for over 14 years throughout the continental United States, including Alaska, Canada, and Mexico. I had the privilege of living with diverse communities and learning and sharing new stories.
I have been gardening and story telling for over 50 years which have been a balm to my soul in a long and challenging journey called life in the USA.

I am presently managing a few gardens at Highland Elementary School in the city of Lake Worth. We have a new gardens: Chief Sitting Bull, Sacagawea, Tecumseh, and Tecun UmanNatural Organic Gardens at the school funded by the Robert Woods Johnson (RWJ) grant and the Palm Beach County School board and the  Palm Beach Religious Society of  Friends (Quakers) in Lake Worth.

The Chief Sitting Bull and Sacagawea gardens at Highland Elementary School are
 601 feet long and 128 feet long.
There have been 3 other gardens there for over 10 years
Come join us!

Volunteers are always welcomed.

Javier Del Sol

P.O. Box 527 Lake Worth, Fl 33460-0527

(561) 533-5287

jdel_sol@hotmail.com

Live Simply That Others May Simply Live