Garden of Life
Spring days have a nice feel to them. Chill in the morning, warming in the afternoon, chill at night. I can embark on my day’s gardening, knowing the sun will warm my work, and the evening will bring me peace. Yesterday I raked leaves from beneath one of the lacy oaks. It had a bit of powdery mildew last year and it’s a good idea to remove the leaf fall to stop the disease.
In addition, I was able to rake out the stubble of the asters from last years bloom and generally clean up the bed. I even pulled a young cedar that picked the wrong place to grow. This bed has seen large changes over the years. At one point it was home to a healthy stand of salvia greggii, but they like sun, and the oak and neighboring crape myrtles conspired against them. There is only one left and it may not have survived the freeze.
Gardening is a constant reminder that life is about change. Things die, and things grow. For instance, the salvia is being replaced by bulbs in this bed that have multiplied terrifically. Yet, after all these years, I don’t recall what they are because I wasn’t a bulb guy. That was my wife. She’s gone now, too, however, along with the salvia. So, this year, when the bulbs’ flower, I will make note of what they are, and tend them as she would have tended them, and remember her as I do, making my way through the garden of my life.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale