“Garden as though You will live Forever”
William Kent
“The garden suggests there might be a place where humans can meet
nature halfway”
Michael Pollan
It is mid-July now, and
a big part of me does not like the heat, the humidity, the stickiness, and the
need to often take more than one shower a day that this means. But for all of my discomfort in
this weather, this is also one of my favorite times of the year. For this is
the time when we can get a real sense that we have a place in the universe, and
we can come alive to and witness the joy of nature around us. For this is the time
the gardens all around us
fully came to
life and joyously announce their presence. They reward us with all of
their amazing shapes, colors, scents, and beauty that make
us love the world all over again. It is a quietly magical time.
One of the big joys of
moving from Germantown to Mt Airy in 1990 was that this house had room for a
back garden. My wife loved plants and flowers, and there were pots and window
boxes in our Germantown home. But Penny wanted a place where we could have a
real garden, with bushes, a variety of flowers, trees, a path, and more. So our
back yard in Mt Airy quickly became her place to “play in the dirt.” She was a
member of the Horticultural Society, and she got ideas from their flower shows,
their magazine and their neighborhood garden projects. When we went on our
camping trips and vacation travel, we would always go to an arboretum or a
public garden. She would see things, get ideas, bring some of the ideas home to
our garden to try them out, and our garden became a lively and wondrous place.
We were birders as well, and we hung thistle, suet, and sunflower seed feeders
to attract a wide variety of birds. House finches, purple finches, chickadees,
nuthatches, hairy and downy woodpeckers, cardinals, starlings, robins,
catbirds, titmice, goldfinches and more eventually came to the yard, drawn by
the colors and variety of the planting. Sitting in the yard, especially on a
summer night around duck and eating BBQ became a magical ritual. Penny called
it, “The Show”, and over the years The Show provided countless hours of quiet
joy, peace, and spectacle.
Penny kept trying new
and different things in the garden, and it changed and expanded over time. Two
of the biggest aides to that process came as a result of summer trips we took.
In the late 1990’s we would go up to Wellesley island State Park, a park and
camping area in upstate New York that is in the St Laurence River on the
Canadian border. The park’s nature center was wonderful; they had a “Vouyager”
canoe trip outing where one could follow some of the routes French fur trappers
took through the area in the 17th and 18th century. I am
not a great canoer, but as a history teacher this was perfect for me. I had
been teaching about this part of North American history for years, and now I
could follow in the footsteps of the trappers.it was a great experience. But
the real joy of the nature center for us was their large and gorgeous butterfly
garden. It was the first one we had been in, and it just blew our minds. It was
a huge outdoor garden covered with netting and filled with flowers of all
different types of colors, sizes, shapes and scents. The place was filled with
hundreds of butterflies of a variety of sizes and colors that were just
floating all around us as we walked through the garden. They were flittering
just in front of us, occasionally landing on us, and sunning themselves on the
tree stumps in the place. It was otherworldly; like being in a living dream. Penny
took note of the different type of plants in the garden and asked some of the
staff about how to plant and care for them. And when we got back to Philly she
put in a number of those plants:Joe Pye weed, bee balm, monarda, a butterfly
bush, and more. By July of the next year we were attracting dozens of butterflies, including monarchs, streaks
of various colors and sizes, Admirals, swallowtails, and more. We also went to
a workshop at Cape May Bird Observatory outisde of Cale May, NJ for a workshop on how to plant a garden to attract
more insect pollinators including bees, beetles, moths and certain flies. Again, new plants were added and our
garden became a place for more and more avian creatures. The Show was blossoming and
expanding. And when we started putting out sugar nectar feeders on May 1st, hummingbirds started to arrive by the middle of June. Just about everyone in our section
of West Mount Airy gardens, so all the birds and insects could travel from house to
house and garden to garden in the neighborhood,delighting the whole area. It was like having a neighborhood nature center.
I am not nearly the gardener
Penny was, but I am trying my best, with the help of a neighbor or two, to keep “The
Show” intact. The garden had been cut back during Penny’s sickness last year as
she could not keep up with the amount of work keeping up a gardens takes. She was simply too weak. This year I have done
some planting, trimming, watering and weeding, and it seems to be working. The
variety of birds and butterflies and bees are back, and “The Show’” continues to dazzle and delight. The
hummingbirds have not returned this year, though, and that saddens me. The last
two winters have been hard on our two butterfly bushes; they are not
blooming and are looking the worse for wear. I know they are big attractors for
hummers, and I may have to remove and replace them. I have tried different nectar and sugar water
formulas in the hummingbird feeders, and I even bought some commercial nectar. Nothing
has worked so far.
Still, that garden is a very special and magical place. Most mid-summer
nights I am fortunate to be able to spend some time out there experiencing
some of what it offers. It was hard for me at this time last year to sit out there
and watch the show without Penny. It just seemed too empty and too solemn. It is easier this
year, though, and I am glad for that. I can sit out in the back, look at the feeders, and sometimes feel her presence
and hear her voice. Or I can just sit in a quiet, watchful silence; we could sit out there quietly and bask in the specialness
of that type of place that can bring humans and nature together in such primal and sustaining
ways. Thanks, Penny, for bringing The Show to our house and continually adding to
it, expanding it, nurturing it and caring for it. I am so grateful for its
presence in my life and to have had the opportunity to have known it with you. And
thank you, gardeners everywhere, for doing your part to make us more aware of
the world around us and enabling us to have a chance to meet nature halfway. That is a treasure, indeed.
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