A few weeks ago I started writing about the petunias outside my window. I somehow got sidetracked and started talking politics. This week I’ll try to finish my thoughts on the fragrant blossoms that have brightened my yard and my life this summer in my accidental garden.
I am not the world’s best gardener. I love flowers and I enjoy seeing them thriving in other people’s yards. I am amazed when I see how some folks get their flowers to line up by height, with tall foliage behind cheerful shorter stalks. I admire gardens with neat rows of colorful vegetation and I marvel at the way some gardeners masterfully blend rocks and interesting pieces of wood with all kinds of plant life.
I wish that my yard was as lovely, but I don’t have the time or patience to plan a garden. But slowly over the past two years, something wonderful has been happening to what was once a rock pile in my back yard.
The rock pile was created when we dug a hole for our basement 14 years ago. It sat, ignored for many years. But nature finds its own way to be beautiful and eventually a small pine tree grew from the little bit of dirt on top of the rocks. It bravely stood in the center of the little hill, over the rocks and weeds, challenging me to something. I of course, ignored it.
However, my friend, Gladys Dockan (half of the 2009 Cook County Senior Citizen of the Year couple), unwittingly started my accidental garden last fall. I noticed the silverywhite plant with white blossoms spreading through her yard in Grand Marais and told her that I thought it was pretty. Gladys insisted that I take some home—she was trying to get rid of it, as it was taking over the rest of her yard!
I found myself with a bucket of ground cover. What to do with it? If it was as hardy as Gladys said it was, maybe it would grow on the rock pile. I poked the plants in what little soil I could find and watered it a bit. It thrived!
My daughter-in-law, Sara, spurred me on with a contribution of chives. “Just stick them in the ground,” she said. I did—and they lived through the winter and came back in living color this spring.
My friend Diane McDonnell gave me some wild geraniums. They also survived the winter and cheerily announced their presence this spring. Theynot only survived, with minimal watering and weeding, they spread vigorously!
Encouraged by my initial success, I splurged at local greenhouses. I bought another ground cover, Alyssum, which is also doing well, and a couple of mystery plants. One of them, a pretty purple plant on a long stalk, is blooming now, replacing the color that faded from the chives and geraniums.
Looking out the window, I realized that I had accidentally planted a seasonal garden— when one plant is done blossoming, another shows its colors.
I now find myself purposely tinkering in the garden—weeding and watering and talking to the lovely plants spilling over into each other’s space.
A wonderful accident, indeed!
Looking for and enjoying beauty is a way to nourish the soul. Theuniverse is in the habit of making beauty. There are flowers and songs, snowflakes and smiles, acts of great courage, laughter between friends, a job well done, the smell of freshbaked bread. Beauty is everywhere.
Matthew Fox
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