Despite the seemingly incessant rains, and at times Biblically proportioned deluges, our gardens are luxuriant with fresh growth and blooms. The local gardeners are waxing eloquently about this year’s Spanish lavender whose wings have never looked better. So translucent in the afternoon sun. Well, yes we have had sun, usually in the late afternoon, and the sunbeams have been welcomed as they light up our garden treasures and help to thaw our frozen toes just a bit.
As we get the vegetable starts in the ground, or seed our sunflowers, squashes, beans, nasturtiums, and other treasures, we look on with great satisfaction at our successes. Over there is the rose bush without black spot (yet!), the irises blooming well and showing off their incredible falls, the peonies throwing open their blooms, the set of buds on some of our mid-summer treasures fattening up. The garden has a wonderful sense of perfection to it.
Of course with all this perfection a denouement has to occur. Isn’t that the balance that always threads through our lives? In England gardeners are subject to serious rabbit damage. Anna Pavord, in her glorious book “The Curious Gardener: A Year in the Garden” has a great riff on the destructive habits of the rabbits. “If they’d actually eaten all the flowers they’d bitten off, it would somehow have been easier to take. But the delinquent vandalism of their actions enraged me…I’ve always supposed myself deeply pacifist, upset by violence in any form. Now I find myself hurling stones, the old horseshoes lined up on the outside wall, gumboots, trowels, whenever a rabbit comes into view. And there’s another source of irritation. I can’t find the trowels afterwards.”
While we do not have rabbits roaming through our gardens, we do have marauding raccoons, and plant decimation from intense cat fights and renegade neighbor dogs who most often show utter disdain or knowledge about any path system. In addition there are the misplaced thundering footsteps from those who come in good faith or in search of some daily cash to help with big chores in the garden. Recently my stand of leeks got wiped out just as they had set their buds for their intriguing globe-like flowers. It appears that there is one unharmed bud. Of course it will take on a great sacred status! Perhaps early evening peregrinations to pay homage?
As I read through a multitude of advice columns regarding the jobs that must be done in the month of June, I get weary. Over the years I have ignored many of the “TO-DO” projects. Yes, it turns out that the experts did in fact know their stuff yet nothing became too dire. There were some costs and losses and embarrassments. There were also some steep learning curves but, most importantly, I found my way to my pleasures in creating a soul-satisfying garden place. I learned how important it is to ‘tend’ one’s garden. Those lessons then extended outward to my work in the community and marketplace and finally leading to a new appreciation of the role of informed politics.
I had never been quite able to express this philosophy of mine that had grown out of and from tending my garden. With friends and colleagues I would flail my arms in arcs with the hope of understanding. I would walk my garden paths with the hopes that my walking companion could garner some sense. I have tried at times to convey, within this column, the important lessons we receive from tending a garden. I now owe everything to Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer for their book: “The Gardens of Democracy; A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government.”
They see this tumultuous time as a turning point that is as profound as the Age of Enlightenment. Put simply, they speak about the Machinebrain that believed “things Self-Regulate” versus the Gardenbrain that believes “Things
Need Tending”. They ask us to hold paired thoughts in our brain – and then ask us if we see these thoughts as either-or. If so then we need to move quickly on toward seeing them as both-and. Their book is provocative. However, by using the metaphor of the garden, they have given us their thoughts in a way that will enamor them to gardeners everywhere.
Finally I encourage you to support the publication of Michelle Obama’s book “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America.” All her royalties go to the National Park Foundation. While it is true that we are way ahead of the curve here in this region, the stories and resources in this book can gladden your heart. Real food has been endorsed by the First Lady. I believe the impact will be profound. Much more profound than passing legislation regarding the size of a soda drink.
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