Tara
I practice commando gardening. No, it does not mean I garden naked, although now that I think of it, what paradigm adjustments my neighbors would have to make? Thinking of course, Kathy Bates and Jack Nicholson in a hot tub. Okay, I digress……
For me, commando gardening are the 5, 6, 7 hour sessions where I stop for nothing. By the end of which I look very much like Rambo coming out of the vegetation, covered in mud to my eyeballs. AND several meaningful tasks having been completed, I need food and water and rest. And maybe a redux of Lonesome Dove.
When I first started on this journey of creating my personal arboretum, I read somewhere the test of a true gardener was when the plants spent more time in a wheelbarrow than in the ground. So, many of my plants have been moved several times, trying gracefully to beg off of the next road trip. I am trying to find the best spot where they will thrive. They on the other hand, just want to stay connected to the ground. So in comes the commando; time to move troops!
This year I am decommissioning a garden space. Having decided to stay in my home of a decade plus, I am redeploying those perennials remaining in a high maintenance area I can no longer maintain alone. I have been moving and giving away as many living entities as I can. For me folks, each plant represents a life, one that deserves respect and hope and from there the chance to move on. If not in my home, then somewhere it will be respected and loved. I feel them and I talk to them. They reward me. Sometimes despite my negligence.
This has been an amazing spring, despite the decommissioning, there are plants blooming which have not bloomed before; roses that have been in the ground for over a decade have multiple buds/blooms. I think Mother Nature has put an umbrella over my little arboretum, helping, supporting, teasing me. Now that I have accepted this little acre as mine. Mine. Only for a lifetime, a steward.
I feel connected to this place. A place that has existed so much in my mind as I plan, develop, nurture, move plants. I am reminded of Scarlett O’Hara. Despite the loss of love, the loss of loved ones, felt such a deep connection to her bit of earth she knew she always had a place.
So here it is, the connection between Rambo and Scarlett O’Hara. My Zen.