I don’t garden.I plant things and do what I can to keep the weeds at bay.
But the weeds usually win.
I used to care. Used to fret about weeds winning. It used to be that I couldn’t sit on the patio after working for hours in the garden, fretting and fussing and weeding, couldn’t sit down at last and just say, “Well, that looks good.”
Because I’d notice something askew. Or how the tall blue things were in front of the short yellow things.
I used to care that delphiniums fell over in the rain.
Then one day I got rid of the delphiniums.
And anything else that was a bit precious. Or incapable of weathering the weather.
The yard became less garden and more Place Where Things Grow or Don’t Grow; It’s Up To Them.
Oh, what a happy day when I stopped being a gardener and started being someone who could sit on the patio at the end of the day and say, well isn’t that a lovely sight.
Without fretting about colour combinations and bloom time and height and things keeling over untidily.
Untidy is hardly noticeable in my ungardenly garden.
So if things are lovely, it has nothing to do with me.
After I stopped being a gardener, I sat on the patio one night and said out loud, “Well, doesn’t everything look wonderful”, and a young girl who was on the patio with me said what a funny thing for an adult to say. “Usually adults complain about things,” she said.
So true.
Because we think we’re in charge.
How lovely. And what a great metaphor for how we should view life.
Ah, yes. You got that…
So good to see you again.
I share your attitude about the garden – I like to just let it be and see what happens. We may have the unruliest yard on the street, but I think we also enjoy it more. Weeds can be beautiful, too.
And, I love the little conversation you had with the girl – what a nice reminder!
There’s a balance between unruly and relaxed gardens. Same with people. (:
I suspect yours is lovely indeed.
Lovely, free-spirited garden, Carin.
I was happy to see the country cousins of the columbines that were transplanted in my city backyard.
What a wise, young friend you have.
Free-spirited… yes. So much less bother than Versailles-esque.
(Hello to the cousins!)