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Friday, August 3, 2012

A Reflection, Perhaps?

Have you ever thought that people's gardens might reflect who they are? Do you think I could make an accurate guess about you if I were to see your garden?

Below is a picture of Duet, looking through the fencing and straight into my little garden. As I looked at it this morning, I thought how much it looks like me. It really is MY garden.


To be blunt, it's a scrappy jungle and I love it that way. Everything is rampant and green, with the pumpkins mingling with the tomatoes. There is a Russian Mammoth sunflower growing just about smack dab in the middle of it all and it will grow to be 12' tall. When I first planted in the spring, there were 10 neat and tidy beds. There was fresh wheat straw laid on the paths and I tiptoed through it. Now you can't even tell where a path might be.

How is this garden like me, or vice versa? As I looked at it this morning I saw parallels: It's just a scrappy, slap dash, impulsive thing. With the sunflower growing in the wrong spot and the pumpkins rebelling against their space. It seems to have no rhyme or reason to outsiders, but it knows what it's doing. It has a plan, even though most just see chaos. The most productive thing in there is not so very useful at all (in the long run anyway), for it's four huge nasturtium plants. This garden likes whimsy it seems, to have that many flowers and cut short on practical veggies. In fact, practicality is not at first noticed in here... There aren't really any rows, just bunches and mobs. The weeds poke their faces up hither thither and quite a few are left there on purpose. Oh this garden... It is cram packed and vibrant in every nook and cranny. With the cleavers nesting with the watermelon and the thistles guarding the kale, one is just reminded that nothing is perfect; least of all humans and gardens. This plot was once a neglected corner that sat useless for years... It had concrete buried too near the surface to till it, yet too far down to dig up; so nothing grew there save the most determined of weeds. And then a farm girl came along and changed that. She put down over three feet of compost in that area and now it's her jungle garden. She only hopes that one day she too can be as vibrant and cheerfully chaotic as it is. 

What does your garden look like and how does it reflect the gardener behind it?

4 comments:

jlstraight said...

If you are interested I could talk to you about square foot gardening. It is innovative and a great use of space and seeds!!

Unknown said...

I do permaculture type beds, curved and give things some room to grow. It's so dry here it's a big mulching thing to do too... I like a bit overgrown and rangey!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful post, very well expressed. Yes, I think our gardens probably do reflect our personalities to some extent. Mine shows my tendency to procrastinate - there is evidence of a good start, and then things obviously petered out. I love the sound of yours - chaotic, verdant, full of growth.

Spryte said...

Nasturtiums? Not so very useful?! I protest!! My husband and I had stuffed nasturtium blossoms in the salad at our wedding reception! (Tasty things, too.) *grin* Here, have a look:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/nasturtiums-natures-nose-nabber/

The rest of the website is also quite awesome, if you have any interesting in wildcrafting - collecting wild foods. Enjoy!