The Garden: Where Growing Something Becomes Giving Something
By Dr. Juris Bunkis
Honorary Consul, Republic of Latvia in Southern California
Orange County Plastic Surgery, Corona del Mar/Newport Beach
When I was growing up in Canada, summer was precious. Our growing season was short, but my mother always had a garden, and we grew whatever vegetables we could before the northern winter returned. The garden was part of our family life—and part of learning where food actually comes from.
Our harvest was supplemented by what nature provided: blueberries, raspberries and wild strawberries, along with mushrooms gathered from the forest. Looking back, I realize that I learned two things from those summers that have stayed with me all my life: the satisfaction of growing something yourself and the pleasure of sharing it with others.
I bought my first house in 1974, just before beginning my surgical residency, and I have had a garden every year since. Fortunately, my gardening conditions improved considerably after I moved to California in 1981. Here, with a year-round growing season and more space, I can grow considerably more than I could have imagined as a boy in Canada.
And I apparently have trouble knowing when enough is enough!
This weekend, I harvested several large bowls of tomatoes. We had a number of guests at our home this weekend, and everyone went home with tomatoes. This was actually my third major tomato harvest this year, and the surplus has found very appreciative recipients among my staff and a local Orange County soup kitchen.
I also harvested enough beets to make cold beet soup, a traditional Latvian favorite, and carrots for the week. And then there were the lemons—about 50 of them. I removed the thin outer rind from each one and started another batch of limoncello.
There is something deeply satisfying about walking into your garden, seeing what has grown, picking it with your own hands and then deciding who might enjoy it.
Gardening teaches patience. You plant, water, weed and wait. You cannot rush a tomato. But eventually, there is a moment when you can walk outside with a basket and realize that all that attention has turned into something tangible.
And perhaps the greatest reward isn’t eating what you grow.
It is sharing it.
A basket of tomatoes for a friend, vegetables for a colleague, or produce donated to someone who needs it transforms gardening from a solitary hobby into a small act of generosity.
After more than five decades of gardening, I still get that same feeling when I bring in a harvest: I grew this. And now I get to give it away.
That may be one of gardening’s greatest lessons—that growing something is wonderful, but sharing what you’ve grown makes it even better.
These tomatoes were set aside for the food bank.
My mom at 100, with two of her Canadian great grandchildren, after a day of blueberry picking this summer.
Restoring What Time Takes Away: Fat Grafting for the Hands and Lips
By Dr. Deborah Ekstrom
Orange County Plastic Surgery, Corona del Mar/Newport Beach
This Week's Quiz: Which two areas can lose significant soft-tissue volume as we age, making them particularly good candidates for fat grafting?
A. Earlobes and knees
B. Dorsal hands and lips
C. Elbows and ankles
D. Forehead and feet
E. Shoulders and neck
Correct answer: B — the dorsal hands and lips.
When most people think about rejuvenation, they naturally focus on the face. A facelift, for example, can make a remarkable difference by addressing sagging skin and tissues and, in appropriate patients, can turn back the visible clock by many years.
But there is another part of the body that can quietly reveal our age: our hands.
As we age, we gradually lose some of the fat and soft-tissue volume that once gave the backs of our hands a smooth, youthful appearance. The skin becomes thinner, tendons and veins become more prominent, and the hands can begin to look bony or “deflated.”
Our lips undergo a similar process. Over time, they can lose volume and become thinner, with less of the fullness and definition that characterized them when we were younger.
This is where fat grafting can be especially useful.
Fat grafting involves gently removing a small amount of fat from another area of the body, processing it and carefully placing tiny amounts where additional volume is desired. Because the tissue comes from your own body, it is a natural approach to restoring some of the volume that aging has taken away.
For the hands, carefully placed fat can soften the appearance of prominent tendons and veins and restore a more youthful fullness to the dorsal surface.
For the lips, very small amounts of fat can restore volume and improve shape while maintaining a natural appearance. The goal isn’t necessarily to create dramatically larger lips. In many patients, the goal is simply to restore what was there before.
One limitation is that extremely thin patients may have very little donor fat available. Fortunately, lip restoration generally requires only a few cubic centimeters of fat, so almost everyone has enough somewhere on the body for at least a modest treatment.
And that brings us back to an important principle of aesthetic surgery: rejuvenation isn’t always about adding something new. Sometimes, it is about restoring something that was already yours.
Just as a garden can be renewed season after season, our appearance can sometimes be refreshed by replacing the volume that time has gradually taken away.
The result should not be a different person.
It should simply look like you—restored.
Interested in rejuvenating your hands or lips?
Schedule online to set up an appointment with Dr. Ekstrom to explore your options.
This 60-year-old female, who looked much younger than her stated age following a facelift, told us that her hands “gave away” her age and wished to have them rejuvenated as well. She is shown here before and after a microfat grafting procedure performed by the Queen of Microfat Grafting in Newport Beach, Dr. Deborah Ekstrom of Orange County Plastic Surgery.
Female in her early 60’s presented with deep perioral (lip) lines. She underwent microfat grafting to the lips. Procedure performed by Dr. Juris Bunkis or Orange County Plastic Surgery in Corona del Mar.
Orange County Plastic Surgery at CosmetiCare
1101 Bayside Drive, Suite 200
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
Take the elevator to the second floor (Suite 200) and check in with the front desk for your consultation or follow-up.
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