This year I’m enjoying the garden in a way I never have before, because I have carte blanche to just sit and enjoy it. This is a new experience for me, because in the past I’ve always been there to work to make it more beautiful, but I rarely just relaxed under a tree with a cool glass of water in my hand. I’m still easily fatigued and my strength is far from normal so I’ve only been doing light gardening so far. Thank goodness I’ve had quite a bit of help this year, so the garden might actually look its best ever.
In early spring, my good friend and upstairs neighbour, Maureen, got a few of our mutual friends to come over and clean the garden after the winter. They filled 5 large bags with leaves, twigs, and other detritus; they did some weeding, some pruning, and generally made things look much better. What a wonderful present! I was extremely touched. So with that base to build on, it’s much easier to work away at the weeds and various other light chores. My oldest friend, Annabelle, an excellent gardener, came and helped me with edging the flower beds. Then my sister, Nora, came to visit yesterday and we did some more edging, and later she made a good start at taking out some of the lilac shoots that spring up everywhere. That lilac, as massive as it is, can’t help itself, it just has to try to get bigger. If I let it go it would probably take over the whole garden. Every year an effort has to be made to prune it back, so what Nora did was very much appreciated.
There have been years where I worked alone in my garden and wondered why I was doing it. Dave appreciates it to some extent, but not like I do. I’ve only recently been interested in growing vegetables, maybe because they’re too practical—not romantic enough. Now that my garden is full of flowerbeds that take up most of the yard, I can’t figure out where I could grow a decent number of vegetables. I’ve tried growing tomatoes and basil in containers, but they don’t amount to much, (thank you, squirrels!). So, when I would work away at the weeding, or when I would want to dig another bed, I would have this inner question mark, why? It was a question that I found a bit deflating. Would anybody else ever appreciate it? Does that even matter?
Now the answer has come to me: I was doing it for myself. My previous self and my present self. Past me’s garden work helped keep me mentally and physically healthy, fed my creativity, and gave me the satisfaction of a job well done. Little did I know that the garden I created over twenty-plus years would end up being a gift to my present self, to enjoy, to crawl-back-towards-health in by gradually adding tasks, or to bask in without the obligation to jump up and work. Yes, the healthier I feel, the more work I’ll do out there, but I’m pretty sure I’ll still be able to give myself the gift of sitting in peace and just enjoying it. That’s one of the few perks of being sick, I feel the right to relax when I need to. To relax, enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of nature, and to stare off into space. Or possibly at my phone, not gonna lie. I have to take some pictures, after all!
This fits in with my long-time favourite saying, Beauty will save the World. The beauty we create is its own raison d’etre, which you can’t say about too many things. Don’t ask me how to explain the phrase, but I believe it on an intuitive level. If you roll it around in your mind for awhile, you might start to believe it, too.
P.S. You may have noticed the change in the look of my blog. This is thanks to my old friend, Theresa MacDonald, who agreed to revamp it! I’m very pleased with the facelift, I think it looks very tranquil, and I’m thrilled! Thank you, Theresa! Work is still being done, so if you notice something odd or missing, it’ll be sorted soon.
I love to hear from you!