By Staff
I like to tour and explore other gardeners' gardens. What a feast for the eyes. Every garden is unique. It represents, no, it reflects the gardener that's hidden deep inside each of us.
On one such visit, I noticed as I walked the winding paths, up ahead lay a garden full of variety.
I spied a dream magazine-type garden, filled with vegetables from A to Z – carrots, Swiss chard, lettuce, onion, garlic, turnips, corn, tomatoes and zucchini. A meticulous garden, not a weed or pest in sight. All rows were straight and clean. All rows had the tallest plants planted farthest east in the garden. Why is this, you ask, because as the sun rises and travels across the sky, no plants are shaded by the preceding neighbors.
Past the vegetable garden I wandered. (I or any gardener would have been proud to call this garden our own.) In a darkly shaded, cool part, sat a charming, antique, metal chair.
From its appearance, it looked very inviting, comfortable and well used, complete with its green peeling paint. A chair to rest and relax in, it should be considered almost a crime not to use it. Just think of all one misses in the garden. I wondered how many times has the owner sat in this chair and daydreamed? (By the looks of this garden, the chair has hardly ever known its owner.) Dare I sit and try it out?
From this vantage point I can see and enjoy many areas of this utopian paradise. Should I, can I linger a moment longer? So much to appreciate. Which part should I savor first, gazing out from "my" seat. I gave in and just sat.
How many gardeners are too busy, I wondered, planting, weeding, dividing, mowing, moving, mulching, watering, fertilizing and deadheading? I have actually heard many gardeners say they have to force themselves to sit in their garden.
Many times I have heard gardeners ask their fellow gardeners this question, "Do you actually take the time to sit down in, rest, relax and enjoy your garden?"
And how many times has a gardener "used" a chair or bench by loading it with the clutter of plants, pots and other gardening stuff? Just to be able to "use" it, a gardener would have to unload all the stuff piled on it first.
We must allow ourselves the luxury to savor the moment, for the time is not wasted.
We should not burden ourselves with imagined chores.
Watch and enjoy the bees busily harvesting the pollen, the beauty of a passing butterfly, the zipping whir of a hungry hummingbird, the rumbling, cool breezes of an approaching spring storm and the thankful song of a bird.
All can be enjoyed from a garden chair.