a piece of land

February 27, 2017

Planning this year’s garden, I came across a great article from Mother Earth News on asparagus and strawberries as companion plants, here. It’s an oldie, written by John Vivian in 1995, but it still holds up. It’s a fairly lengthy piece, very comprehensive. He opens with a bit of his personal history. I love this:

“It is mighty fine to sink your roots and psyche into a piece of land, even if it’s no more than an acre or two and you still commute to a paying job in town. A good way to confirm those roots to yourself is to set in plants that may take awhile to bear, but that will continue producing for years, decades, or a lifetime. It affirms that you anticipate a degree of calm and settled, rural, low-tech permanency in this unsettled, urbanized, high-tech age.”

My first taste of gardening was on a plot less than 1/10 of an acre, most of which was consumed by the footprint of my little house. No matter. I loved that little piece of land and I learned much about gardening there. I learned that growing a beautiful, perfect rose takes a lot of time, maintenance and chemical assistance, at least it did for me. I learned that earthworms were my friends and helped my plants be all they could be, by improving the soil. I learned that letting a pretty, shade-loving ground cover take over was much easier, more attractive and more earth friendly than struggling to maintain a lawn where the sun don’t shine. I learned that digging out the hole for a pond was much, much easier when it had rained the night before.

Garden pond in progress

Garden pond awaiting some plants

And most of all, I learned that I could pull up a chair and sit quietly by the edge of the pond, watching the fish for hours.

Moving from that place was tough. My blood, sweat and tears were embedded in the soil. So much work and so much reward. When I sold that house, the buyer had listed into the contract all the things he wanted to remain with the house. Just after where the pond and accessories were typed in, his agent actually handwrote in “and fish”. Hard things.

I left by choice to move on to a new phase in my life.

There were a couple of places in between and now I’m on a much bigger piece of land. I’ve become quite rooted in the five years my husband and I have been here. I love the new gardening opportunities that this place affords me.

Raised beds work well in a woodland setting

The pond came built in with this land, fish included.

Koi pond

According to my husband, we are never moving again. While that remains to be seen, as life sometimes has its own ideas about what is best, I am happy to be calm and settled, planting some strawberries and asparagus, in hopes that I will be here for many years to enjoy them.


4 Comments

  • Reply tippysmom2 February 28, 2017 at 12:29 am

    Lovely post. Your pond looks wonderful and I’m sure you can spend many hours watching the fish swim around. I live on a farm, so know that there is nothing like homegrown vegetables – especially tomatoes. Those bought in the store just don’t even come close to the same taste.

    • Reply thewoodlandgardener February 28, 2017 at 4:47 am

      Thanks! Totally agree about the homegrown vegetables. I’ve become such a tomato snob that I generally will go without rather than buy them in a store.

  • Reply Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog February 28, 2017 at 1:56 am

    Looks like a great area… and the pond looks impressive! 🙂

    • Reply thewoodlandgardener February 28, 2017 at 4:49 am

      It is really peaceful here. That is what we were looking for after living in an urban area for the previous 7 years. I miss some things, such as being able to walk or bike to the drug store or grocery store and having close neighbors who became friends, but it was a trade-off we were ok with making.

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