Hello, My name is Kim Pollard, and I am a Veteran & Gold Star wife and here is some of my story.
Lets go back to the beginning, I am from a small town on an island of 800
people in Alaska. We are pretty sheltered from the rest of the world. We lived off the land with deer and fish as our main source of meat. We did get an assortment of berries, limited vegetables, mostly canned, frozen or dehydrated, and rice was our main side with every dish. There were some who tried to grow their own fruits and veggies, but with the short growing season, it was hard work and you also had to bear proof it. So, growing up I didn’t see a lot of farming or gardening. My knowledge is slim to none on gardening.
Once I graduated, I was off to college in the lower 48. I enjoy how different
living and fresh products was easily available. One thing lead to another and I
enlisted in the USAF where I got assigned to RAF Lakenheath, England. That is
where I met and fell in love with my late husband Nathan C. Pollard. We both
worked on the flight line as Security Forces.
Nathan was from California, where he grew up in a larger farming city,
Hollister. His mother worked at a nursery where Nathan would tag along with her to work. He was so smart. He would help and learn all about plants, how they are
grown, where they grow and how to make them healthy. He could tell what kind of plant it was just by just looking at it.
We had developed a little game. We have been stationed at Malmstrom (Montana), RAF Lakenheath (UK), Izmir (Turkey), F.E. Warren (Wyoming),Iraq, Ghedi (Italy), RAF Alconbury (UK), Qatar, Anderson (Guam), JBRE (Alaska) with countless deployments to Bosnia, Scotland, Mozambique, Germany, Norway, Alabama, Texas, Florida and so on. A lot of these we drove. Every time we passed a field, I would ask him what that was we were driving by. I was always just amazed with how they planted them, watered them and even harvested them. I loved to watch. He would just glance over as we were driving and say, oh that is cabbage, or lettuce or corn. Corn would be easy to guess, but I loved how he knew by just looking at it.
We had bought our first house in Wyoming. We loved to work on house projects
together and getting it ready for visitors when the baby came. Nathan always loved working in the yard. He was always out cutting and trimming the grass, bushes, and trees. Then he asked me, what if we take out a couple feet in the back and do a garden. I said that would be awesome, but I have no clue how to do that. He said, “Don’t worry, I got it.” He cleared it, tilled it, and then we sat and planned it out. What seeds we wanted, where to place them for sun and shadows. And of course, how often do I need to water them. That was my job. We loved it. As soon as our son could walk, he was right there next to him helping weed, and pull veggies and scaring the rabbits away. Of course, Hadyn wanted to keep them as pets, but we would put them out of the yard and close their holes so they couldn’t get back in. From then on, every time we moved, we tried to always have a garden. The kids would always eat their veggies if they were able to go out and pick them themselves.
After losing him, we moved to Tennessee. We had picked Tennessee to be our
forever home once done with the Military. So I packed us up and moved us down
here to continue on with our plans. After a year, and still having many break downs and not feeling any better, I decided I need to start therapy. After almost a year of therapy we tried to do a garden this last summer, because we knew that is what Nathan would do. In a way, us doing something he would do is like having him still here with us. I tried not to put to waste the things he had always tried to ingrain into the kids. I must say, it stared great. We cleared, and tilled and planted. Then the weeds and grass took over. I had spent days out there pulling and I could almost look over and see him there doing it with me. I knew if he was here, he would have been there all day pulling it all. Thinking back on it, he would have laid black paper down, bark or something so the weeds wouldn’t come through in the first place.
I am overly excited for Frontline Gardens to teach and help me make gardening fun, therapeutic, and keeping one of my late husband’s core values alive in our family. Thank You from the bottom of our hearts.
Kim, Hayden, and Kacilina Pollard
