What is a garden?
How does it evolve from the space that exists, into a garden, our garden?
When do we claim it as our own?
Is it while searching for a place to call home, basing the decision on what can be envisioned, or is it only after enough change takes place,enough work has been done that our imput begins to show?
I have always lived in homes with gardens. Mothers garden, Grandmothers garden, and my own. The women in our family claim the gardens although much work has been accomplished with the aid of men. I know men that garden, but they are fewer in these circles. It may be different elsewhere. So womens gardens have shaped my vision of what a garden should be.
Grandma's garden was for food. She grew in an old fashioned way, adding aged manure,mulching with straw, turning under the dead and dying remains after a season was over. No herbicides or pesticides.
She canned some of the harvest, dried some of the harvest. She served bountiful meals all through the season. She lived in the country with plenty of land and picked berries from wild patches, apples and nuts from the trees, mushrooms from the woods. She and nature provided.
Mom grew flowers, for cutting and smelling and touching. She saved seeds, took cuttings, shared with neighbors and family and friends. She knew the names of so many of the plants that grew wild near her childhood home. Not the scientic names but the common names given to her as she asked as she grew.And then passed on to me, when I asked. She would have nothing to do with poisons. She liked Miracle Grow.
My own garden style is a combination of these spaces and people, a unique sport.
A philosophy of life encompassing the garden began to emerge. It happened slowly. When young I was indignant about mankinds role. There are so many of us and we seemed to be crowding out other inhabitants of this world. Humans are generalists in the extreme, able to adapt quickly, ever expanding into new territory. Could this bring other than disaster?
After years of education and maturity I realized that mankind could/would learn to co-exist. We would learn and adapt or crash, like all other species. Life and the earth will out.
This wildlife habitat/garden arises from this developing philosophy ...so this journal begins...
October 20 2006
How does it evolve from the space that exists, into a garden, our garden?
When do we claim it as our own?
Is it while searching for a place to call home, basing the decision on what can be envisioned, or is it only after enough change takes place,enough work has been done that our imput begins to show?
I have always lived in homes with gardens. Mothers garden, Grandmothers garden, and my own. The women in our family claim the gardens although much work has been accomplished with the aid of men. I know men that garden, but they are fewer in these circles. It may be different elsewhere. So womens gardens have shaped my vision of what a garden should be.
Grandma's garden was for food. She grew in an old fashioned way, adding aged manure,mulching with straw, turning under the dead and dying remains after a season was over. No herbicides or pesticides.
She canned some of the harvest, dried some of the harvest. She served bountiful meals all through the season. She lived in the country with plenty of land and picked berries from wild patches, apples and nuts from the trees, mushrooms from the woods. She and nature provided.
Mom grew flowers, for cutting and smelling and touching. She saved seeds, took cuttings, shared with neighbors and family and friends. She knew the names of so many of the plants that grew wild near her childhood home. Not the scientic names but the common names given to her as she asked as she grew.And then passed on to me, when I asked. She would have nothing to do with poisons. She liked Miracle Grow.
My own garden style is a combination of these spaces and people, a unique sport.
A philosophy of life encompassing the garden began to emerge. It happened slowly. When young I was indignant about mankinds role. There are so many of us and we seemed to be crowding out other inhabitants of this world. Humans are generalists in the extreme, able to adapt quickly, ever expanding into new territory. Could this bring other than disaster?
After years of education and maturity I realized that mankind could/would learn to co-exist. We would learn and adapt or crash, like all other species. Life and the earth will out.
This wildlife habitat/garden arises from this developing philosophy ...so this journal begins...
October 20 2006
posted by Gloria at 10:27 PM
2 Comments:
Ahhh Gandalf- This is a very interesting post. It brings back many memories for me of gardens past. Thank you!- Angie (lovesrocks)
Thank you Angie for taking the time to let me know you stopped by.
...Gandalf/Gloria
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