Plans Halted

This week my family endured a traumatic event that while not life threatening or permanent, nevertheless caused significant disrupption on our summer plans financially. Plans for the corner garden are halted, save for the few dollars I scraped together for mulch that I'll get this weekend. I really don't want to loose the plants I already have. The trellises and the landscape lumbers are put on hold indefinitely. Sure, things could be a hundred times worse, but this event could have turned out very badly, put into question some parties we were planning on and totally nixed any hope of a vacation this year. It basically put us in a pretty bummed out mood for a week and a half.

I found myself really turning to the garden for calm and peace. There isn't much to do in the garden right now. The big weeds haven't taken hold and I've kept up with most of them. I'd normally be primping the garden about now - mulching, buying some filler plants. The urge to do so now has been hard to resist. Instead, I've been trying to focus on no-cost options. I've moved elephant ears from a bed that was hard to get to and not really visible to a more prominent spot in the corner garden. Everything that could potentially be propagated by a cutting has been done so and a ton of baby plants are lined up in plastic cups. I've asked everyone I know for snips of their plants and have considered going to the homes of people in my neighborhood and ask for theirs, but I am a bit freaked out by that. They might come at me with gardening shears for even asking for a clipping. You never know.

Mostly, I've been sitting, relaxing and enjoying the garden for what it is. Like parenting a child, I always see three gardens when I look: what it was, what it is, what it has the potential to be. And like a child it's hard to enjoy a garden for what it is and not worry about what it could be. After spending this time, I really realized one of the reasons I love gardening so much was that I associate it so closely with wealth and richness. I've toured estates and beautiful homes and the ones that strike me are the ones with lush and cared for gardens. Even a simple cottage looks amazing with a beautiful garden. The real joy is that even though I can't add much to garden right now, the garden pays its rewards ahead, so I can still enjoy my previous work. And unlike a diamond necklace, a gadget, or a new car, the garden is constantly changing and new, only getting better and richer with age.