The Imperfect Garden

When I come home from my trip to Thailand I anticipate an interesting garden awaiting me.

Two gardens. The regular vegetable garden, which this year is pared down to corn, tomatoes, potatoes, artichokes, lettuce and strawberries. Somewhat orderly.

Then there is the round garden, begun last fall with a circular layer of fall leaves, now thrice rototilled into the soil..


My circular garden is a strange mix. Flowers and blueberries, ferns and corn, spices and sunflowers. Today I stuck in four strawberry plants. An artist friend carved a giant pumpkin last fall and I have some of those seeds planted as well.

I know Isaac will not keep up on the weeding, so both gardens are a little smaller this year. Which is fine. There will be a little chaos mixed with the orderly wedges and scimitar shapes I have seeded.

This round one is my Sittin’ & Thinkin’ Garden.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense, the mix I have chosen... except I chose based on colors and heights, the smells and on-the-spot edible treats.

I approached the garden sort of how I approach a painting or drawing. Mixing and blending, just creating a living metaphor of colors and smells.

Life isn’t as tidy as the gardens we usually have. Vegetable garden here... flower garden there... berries along that side... herbs in rows on this... Life is a lot like the garden I think I will see in late July. Chaos and order, all mixed together. What I planted, and, to paraphrase Hamlet: For in that future garden what weeds may come... Must give us pause...

Which are weeds? I count dandelions weeds because I don’t usually put them in my salad and I don’t know how to make Dandelion Wine. Weeds are also a part of gardens.

I like the idea of all that potential chaos about to spring from the fertile Canby Sandy Loam (that’s the north side of town, folks).

I’m repainting what was Jeremiah’s room. I’m turning it into a prayer room. I have a plan for another picture/prayer for one of the walls.

Those pictures I do can seem chaotic up close. Letters and words run off in differing directions, growing large and small, heavy and light. But at a distance they are a picture, an expression.

That’s life, isn’t it? Order out of chaos. Chaos slipping in and out of order.

Quantum level physics describes a universe filled with randomness, pure chance and chaos, yet at a larger scale, we see patterns and order, Newtonian Laws.

It’s just grand to live in an imperfect garden.

The Front Yard Today

The Front Yard Last Winter