Garden Detente - Simplify

"All the great things are simple...  " ~Winston Churchill.
The garden simplifies. Ever notice how certain plants, shrubs or trees do well in your garden while others do not? As one species withers, is pruned back by animals, or fries in the sun others fill in to take its place. Our friendships can be like that, our careers, our interests. We often try to force the issue in the garden as in our daily lives. In an effort to keep that water loving ligularia from wilting under the long branching arms of your flowering crab you water and water until for a few days something keeps you from getting to it and inevitably it dies. But in its place you find the epimedium has filled in and is thriving.  It's sad but its a relief not to have to force nature.
Gardens have a way of taking care of themselves
that way. This is not to say our gardens and lives wouldn't benefit from some pruning and weeding now and again. Gardens are tamed or else they're fields or forests. We've taken away natural predators and introduced non-native species just as we've done in our communities and homes when we form friendships that are not based on honesty or when we look the other way when we see something that should be stopped. There doesn't seem to be anything to stop us from doing exactly what we please these days.  Many plants and shrubs thrive and grow stronger with pruning.


Green is beautiful! There are so many shades and textures of green.  A pop of color amidst all that green really stands out. It's also nice when we can coordinate some colors or get a nice contrast going but when you look out at the garden and have every color in the rainbow and all their hues going at once it's like that kid in school who wore striped shirts with plaid pants or the old guy in the office who wears those wide, bold ties on even louder shirts, too much! The garden is supposed to be a peaceful place, not like a friend who just can't stop talking. I've been guilty of this, the overly colorful garden, not the too much talking, I mean.  Ok, maybe both! In a polite garden as in polite conversation one plant talks or blooms and then is quiet while another plants gets it's chance. In a larger garden two, maybe three conversations can be going on at once but above that it becomes a complete din and no one can hear even their own thoughts.