Overhearing a Garden Conversation

The BBQ restaurant was closed every time Beloved & I drove by, since June.  Yesterday, the parking lot was overflowing.  Of course we parked.  Stood in line, finally sat down to eat, and it was worth the wait, literally & figuratively.
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Then, amongst the din I could hear conversation behind me.  Gardeners, of a sort, not mine.  Past middle age, it was obvious they were thrilled knowing a few botanical names, and what a plant tag suggests or the obvious stated at a master gardener lecture.  Excruciating.  Their gardens, good gardens acceptable to every mow-blow-go crew across USA.  Foundation plantings, lawn and the incurves/outcurves a good college teaches about garden design.  Aka, everything sending me to study historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades.
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The closest comparison would be describing the Grand Canyon as a 'ditch'.
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Gardens say so much, below.  This narrative, below, has been written for thousands of years.  Gardens lasting centuries?  This is their trinity, below.  Woodland, meadow, stone focal point.  Another way of saying the same thing, high density next to low density.  Yet another narrative, below, maximum pollinator habitat.



Pic, above, here.

Fruit trees, meadow, below, woodland.  Bucolic, and maximum pollinator habitat increasing fruit yields by 80%.  Tall meadows for fruit trees are correctly named, guilds.  The path scaled for wheelbarrow & gardener.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, garden & house.  Enjoying both.



Pic, above, here.

Vanishing threshold, below, a proscenium for meals, alone time, or tete-a-tete.

  

Pic, above, here.

 

Gardening many years ago the epiphany arrived, "You choose the plants in your garden, choose the people in your life."  Memo received, people ejected.  Zero regrets.



Remember, when the leaves fall they enrich the tree.



Sometimes I wonder how G*d has time for other people.  Really, another lesson, for me, pinpoint accuracy, no less?


This bothers some people, above, in my life.  Really?



In the South, Bless their heart, covers this one, above.  What covers it in your region?



No matter how hard I tried, it wasn't real, decades passed, finally, I saw.  This one is a lot of fun, with kindred spirits.  Much laughter.



Saying 'no' is often more important than saying 'yes'.






These lessons, above, are writ large for each of us, yet whether we see them or not is on our own shoulders.  Once seen, garden lessons, oh my the laughter, realizing the years of not seeing.





A lifetime exists, daily, in my garden.  Having lived too many years for 'tomorrow' and losing all that was gained, everything, I live each day.  With zero fear about this choice.    



In my city garden, above.  I set the stage for poetry, music, lessons, narratives, etc.  Tell you how to dig a hole & plant a hydrangea macrophylla?  You're smarter than that, the Grand Canyon is not a ditch.
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More, the path, above, led into my backyard from the sideyard, in a cluster home subdivision, the lot 8500sf.  Yet, my garden gave me acres of joy.
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Today, my gate, above, waits with its twin on a pallet next to the dairy cattle pasture & lake.  Living, less than a year, on our little farm built ca. 1900.  Outward validation of learning the lessons, above, knowing more are on their way.
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No worries, I have my garden.
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And, you should see the stars here at nite.  They are like a blanket lightly dropping down and wrapping your shoulders.  Never considered the stars when buying our farm.  Yet, out they come, a present.  A benediction.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara