Plants
Plants Before plants arrive, a garden is a meeting of land and a gardener, held as a kind of dream. Where they meet, the dream is planted, and plants happen. They are the response to the conditions. They are the effect. Plants express the garden continuously. As conditions change, they change. Water ebbs and flows, […]
Techniques
Techniques When you stand in a space you would like to call a garden, tools at hand, you are at the threshold of action. You are where a garden becomes gardening. Gardening develops where land, body, and tools meet. Techniques do not add a layer to the garden. They are where prior forces finally act […]
Tools
Tools So here you stand, in a space you would like to call a garden. Land is beneath your feet. You are settled in your body, accepting consequence. With land and body in place, you reach for a way of making a garden: tools. Tools won’t make a garden, but a gardener without them will […]
On Becoming a Gardener
On Becoming a Gardener About body, time, and learning to listen I didn’t set out to become a gardener. I was on a different path, and became one along the way. What follows is not a change of careers so much as a change in attention. When I was younger, I wanted to write soundtracks. […]
What Is a Garden
What Is a Garden Before Making a Garden Most people think of a garden as something finished: a look, a layout, a set of plants that finally make sense together. But a garden begins earlier than that. It starts before tools come out, before anything is planted or moved. It begins the moment a piece […]
THE JOYS OF WEEDING (Part 1)
About the human body, hand tools, and finding what works for you.
Dear Reader,
Like a parachute, Grimsby’s trees suddenly deployed their canopies and we landed mid-spring. It seems just yesterday the Niagara Escarpment was bare and brown, now it’s a sea of green so dense you can no longer see the ridge from below. Even blooms and buzzing bees have awakened. The air is fragrant with lilacs, crabapples and korean spice viburnums. The long weekend, an early one this year, has come and gone. It rained before, and it’s raining again. Gardeners, roll up your sleeves, spring cleanups are on their way out; it’s weeding time!
THE LITTLE SEDGE UNDER THE OLD OAK
About where inspiration comes from
Dear Reader,
Beneath Grimsby’s last remaining old growth oaks, near the fairytale Grimsby beach homes, grows a partly shaded garden. Its steel blue and burgundy foliage, highlighted by white margins, display annually on a carpet of black mulch. But as enchanting as are the globe blue spruces, Japanese maples and carpets of variegated hostas, what interested me most last Thursday was a small patch of fine bright green grass.
The grass, planted a few years ago, has established well in its sandy dry shade corner.
THE LONG AWAITED RETURN OF YELLOW WILLOWS
Dear Reader,
There is such a thing as the perfect day for cutting sod.
I finally got a sod cutter the Saturday before last. A manual one – looks like an 1300’s plough with V-shaped handles, but instead of a share there’s a horizontal 12” blade attached to an equally wide roller. It works like a charm, if charms worked with a kick and a grunt.
It is a significant improvement over the fork and hand hoe method, having tripled my work speed. The sharp blade slices soil easily and evenly. It’s counter-balanced by the weight of the roller, so when you put your body weight
THE EXERCISE PARADOX
About preventing gardening injuries, sod removal and a late March ice storm
Dear Reader,
Last week’s weather was, as to be expected for late March, a mix of things. Light flurries, followed by a hot bright sun, then a cold wet wind brought rain which stayed through the week’s end. North of Grimsby, it was ice. Visually spectacular, but no time to relax for gardeners. Ice reveals the weakest branches. In a way, for gardeners, spring is like an ice storm. For gardening, I rely heavily on injury prevention, spending time in winter on cardio, strength, and flexibility.
Designing for Designers
About designing a garden for an interior designer and an architect.
A few years ago, I was invited to design a small front garden for the home of an interior designer and an architect. They brought to the table an aesthetic opinion on the garden space and language to communicate it (their drawings were immensely helpful). I brought plants and some knowledge of their change over time. Designing gardens, like music, movies, magic and endless others, is a time art. Time arts are designed in a time frame; Things can be arranged in order of happening, which allows for endless effects.