We are already nearing the end of January and although the last frost date in this area is not for another 4 whole months, I am biting at the bit to begin planning my next garden. Last summer I was caught up in major upheaval and I did not have the opportunity to begin another garden. This is a new year, a new beginning, and I intend to make the most of it. I can dive back into my permaculture study with renewed enthusiasm and begin to plan a magnificent garden.
I had to let go of my last garden that I made here in this town. I have had to let go of the back breaking work, the money spent, the time invested, and the love that I poured into it. I have had to let go of my successes with beginning many plants from seed and I have had to let go of the flowers themselves. I had always believed that leaving something more beautiful than I had found it, was its own reward; but the clueless mindset of so many has caused me to feel at times, that it was all a total waste.
My previous landlord rototilled my entire garden after I left and replanted grass in the 40’ X 30’ area. My 4 hȕgelkultur beds, all of my herbs, the loads of mulch that I had put down, the comfrey that was to provide tea for the plants, the improved soil from my chickens, my favorite clematis – Raguchi – and the climbing rose now gone to be trodden by dogs, neglected, and overgrown with weeds. All of the arduous work that I had done was apparently for nothing. Gardens that I had previously left behind, were left miles away. Since I no longer lived in the same town, I did not have the constant reminder of what I had lost. I avoid driving past this previous garden now because it is like a knife piercing my heart.
I know that the only way to heal this broken gardening heart is to plant a new garden. The only way to overcome the anguish is to make the next garden even better than the last. I continue to grow as a person. I continue to grow as a gardener. I know that with each successive garden I am making it more sustainable, more enduring, more in tune with Mother Nature. One day, those who do not now know any better, may become interested in my garden. They may shed their cloak of ignorance and seek understanding. I know; however, that my only job is to keep on gardening, to let go of judgement and resentment. I simply need to walk barefoot on the earth and plunge my hands deep into the soil, allowing it to fill me with joy once again.
