I have a little garden…

Isak Dinsen had a farm in Africa.  I have a little garden on the side of my house.  Not a vegetable garden, not a flower garden, but a private little garden with an assortment of things I like.   Growing as best they can…hydrangeas in pots (my very, very favorite), ferns, elephant ears, begonia, ivy crawling up a trellis and a pitiful attempt at herbs.   There are stone cats and frogs and turtles peeping through the foliage. 

This garden is in that usually wasted space on the side of one’s house where no one ever goes.  It begins even with the front of the house and ends at the back with gates to the front and the backyard where the heathens play.  We enclosed the space as a private place for Clemmie, my elderly and blind dachshund, when we put the pool in.  Turns out she was the first one in the pool anyway.  But it’s Clemmie’s garden.  Clemmie is gone now and two pretenders to the throne occupy that space… and me.

Inspired by the Pier One commercials last summer for “Wonderland,” I have been diligent in trying to keep the garden going.  The drought hasn’t helped.  The herbs have died and been reborn more times than I ever expected.  But the garden is the one place I have faithfully watered.  The grass patch grows well there, the ivy that was down to one small sprig after last winter’s brutal cold is back and thriving, the fern’s tiny fragile frond screamed at me on the way to the trash can and showed me by reviving itself.  Encouraged by nature’s industry, I brought in a wicker loveseat, table, wrought iron trellis.  It’s a pretty place. 

I worked outside today.  My backyard is a series of gopher holes courtesy my large lab and his companions.  The cinch bugs have formed their crop circles.  My lackadaisical approach to watering shows.  It’s not Home and Garden.  But as I opened the gate to the garden, the sense of calm and serenity was physical.

There’s a lesson here.  We can be neglectful and lazy or just too busy.  We can be extreme in our tempers as Nature has been with us this year.   But there is in us, a tiny spark, like the sprig of ivy and the fern frond, that will endure.   We must be careful not to give up too soon or throw it away.  A little love, faith and water can work miracles. 

A little rain would help too.