Actually making headway. I’ve yet to plant about a third of the garden, but what I have is making me pretty happy!

Plants from front to back:

Front row to the right of the spigot, three roses, all tea hybrids, Princess Monaco, Tropicana and Peace. Behind that English Lavender, 6 plants, three varieties. (Sorry some of the big ones are cut out of the picture.) The bed is hazelnut shells. Wow, talk about something that is easy to weed with a scuffle hoe! Just scratch back and forth and you don’t have to fuss with the dirt to make it all purdy like. Right behind the lavender/rose bed is my herb garden. Next bed is the beet bed and behind that bed I’ve got late shallots in and troutback romaine…Wow serious gorgeous plant, can’t wait for it to get all grown up! Then, the center dot is is fiber flax> Towards the end of summer that will be a big stand of 18 inch long stems full of powder blue flowers. To the right and left I have two beds of juwarot heirloom carrots and on either side of that, peppers, and behind those, tomatoes. Phew! I’ve created a wind break, rather than enclosing the peppers and tomatoes simply because…HELLO ITS MID JUNE! But it might as well be April with our weather. If I enclosed them with plastic at this point I’d have to pull it all off in about 3 weeks.

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but I will say this, even the crusty old folks that garden here have commented on the garden. I’m actually pretty humbled by the comments. Some are funny, others wonderful. Here is a sampling:

“Is it a maze garden?
“It has a stonehenge feel.”
“Was there a reason you did it this way?”
“Is this an advertisement for OSX?”
“Is it a crop circle?”
“Alien communication device?”
Most of these were before it was planted. Now its:
“Wow look at that!”
“That’s soo cool!”
“Beautiful!” I’ve had so many of this one I’ve lost count.

Driving home tonight it hit me. I’ve always said that each garden is a reflection of the person making it. I guess there is something in me that is both ancient, strange and beautiful?! Well who knows but I am certainly glad that my garden isn’t contrary like poor Mary! (Mistress Mary, quite contrary that is!)

Tomorrow I’m going to take my camera and get an aerial shot! Stay tuned! 47°39′33.05″N 122°6′33.52″W

One of the funny things about gardening, is, you are trying to create within nature, an unnatural grouping of things that you like. For example, where in nature do you find growing together a tropical plant like a tomato and a bunch of kale? But the beauty of gardening is that you can do such things.

Each year before I garden I ask, or rather I open my thought to the Earth and God if you will and ask what it wants to be. When I do this, I find I create things that are so much more beautiful than if I were simply to lend shoulder to plow and just put a bunch of squares together. It is almost as if the very ground desires to be something more than just land, just dirt. It has a desire to be unfolded.

I’ve come to grips with the death that I cause to the worms. I am at peace because I’ve noticed that when I dig, some of them inevitably are cut in half, and some of them writhe a bit, but thankfully their suffering is short. It seems as if nature has built into these tender little creatures a mechanism that prevents their suffering as they become stunned quickly. I’m glad for that. And the wonder that beholds me is that there seems to be even more worms to take their place. I ask their forgiveness, and continue to dig and shape. It is just the nature of things in a garden.

The garden, is a magical place. It is a place of viewing, of presence and occasionally self-examination. One time I went to the garden after midnight. My brother and I were out waiting for a meteor shower. We sat back in in gray weathered adironack chairs and watched the skies. I saw something that looked like a flashlight moving up and down in the garden, but not with a human gait. I thought that someone was playing around with a light but suddenly it went out. I had no sense of fear, just wonder. Later that night, or early morning I witnessed clouds forming in the distance, acting most un-cloud like. One formed an oval and had a sense of playfulness to it. It literally split in two, slowly, almost like a cell dividing and the two clouds went in different directions. While we didn’t see many shooting stars that night, we did notice some interesting happenings.