The good ones make it look easy. Gardens, that is.
Take my verbena for instance. It forms a phalanx of purple along my walk that calls in butterflies by the droves. They're so full and lush it's hard to imagine them as the somewhat spindly, wide-spaced seedlings they started as. I planted them six inches apart. I weeded them assiduously. In time they grew closer together and bushed out. There followed a proliferation of blossoms. Then I mulched and mulched again to keep the water from evaporating. Spring came and with it a late frost. Verbenas are perennials, but some didn't make it. I replanted. They blossomed and I deadheaded to encourage more blooms. I watered three times a week. I added enriched dirt, 12 bags. I was rewarded with a royal display of happy and healthy flowers. People walked by and remarked how pretty they were. Sometimes I'd hear an "Oh!" When I looked up I'd see someone smiling.
Resplendent white and purple butterfly bushes grace the top of the retaining wall. Azaleas, gardenias, cascading roses lend their beauty to the scene. All require mulch. I covered the garden in 1200 pounds of dark black chips. It made the color in the pink azaleas pop!
My husband planted wisteria to cover the garden swing. However, like kudzu, it snaked around the latticework, through the roses and over and under the butterfly bushes. Snip, snip, snip, I proceeded to trim and prune. I stood on tiptoe with long-handled loppers and cut back the wisteria. Then I gathered all the branches and stuffed them in bags. Tall blackberry bushes scratched my bare arms while rose thorns scored my legs. The sun baked my skin and the humidity dampened my clothes. No matter, the shade it provided and the aesthetic touch was worth it. Sweat equity equals beauty. I grew slimmer as my plants grew bushier.
A neighbor gave me some rudbeckia. It proliferated with the redundancy of bunnies in clover. I succumbed to their wild ways. Their black eyes and golden petals burst forth like sun on a summer day. Can't stop good Rudbeckia. A cinch to grow, just don't get in their way because they have a tendency to spread.
The Lollipop lilies burst forth pink with pride. I cut them, brought them inside and placed them in a cut glass vase on the dining room table. I added a teaspoon of sugar to the water and they lasted ten days.
People don't see the sweat equity; the watering, the trimming, and the weeding. They see only the results because the lovely culmination is so compelling. Many of them don't know the names of the flowers, but they know what they like. They like my garden. It represents abundance, resilience and regeneration. A garden is growth and rebirth, rhythm and continuity, symphony of spirit. Ultimately it's hope.
The good ones make it look easy. A perfect high dive superimposes itself over the hours of repetition it took to achieve it. A flawless ballet performance seems effortless to the onlooker. So it is with a garden. The denouement coupled with an "Ah!" marks the spot. A garden is a bit of magic performed with sleight of hand and dip of trowel.
I left my garden when we moved to Pennsylvania. I hope those who inherit it make it look easy. I hope they bloom where they grow. I hope they plant, prune and flourish.
It's never easy, but the good ones make it look that way. Living, loving and gardening. Not easy, but worth it to hear them say:
"Look!" "Look what I saw today!" or "Did you see those roses?"
Growth, regeneration, the 'Oohs!' and 'Aahs!' I hope they see the love.
It isn't easy. Do you think they know? The good ones make it look easy, because the good ones know that building a garden is worth the show.
Jill Roadman lives with her husband in Pennsylvania amid a plethora of old-fashioned roses, hostas and Rose of Sharon bushes. She looks forward to Spring and the promise of grape hyacinths, daffodils, lilies of the valley and crocuses planted lovingly by other hands long ago. She intends to nurture, plant and grow the old with the new. Along with her flowers she now has a vegetable garden replete with green beans, summer squash, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and bell peppers. She expects her gardens to flourish for some time to come.