What happens in a garden?

Some people are drawn to nature, and some people aren't. I was telling a friend today that I grew up feeling closer to nature than to most people, except my family. The lake I spent my summers next to was my friend. I would sit on the dock and look into those waters and connect. I remember giving the lake little gifts of flowers or leaves. And I remember I gave them as "gifts". Many things in nature were my friends over the years and taught me... rocks, valleys, grass, animals. Last year the animals harvested my sunflower seeds. I intended to bake those tasty seeds but seeing the animals enjoy them, and need them for the winter, changed my mind.

Each year I grow a garden, and have done that with a few exceptions since leaving college. What makes me get out there year after year to plant, work the soil, compost, harvest, and weed? What is the attraction? There is a definite attraction - a soul yearning feeling - to working and being in my yard. I wouldn't recognize myself without it. I can honestly say it has very little to do with what actually grows out there, though the "harvest" keeps my passion sound reasonable I guess. I do love to see a full healthy garden. I also love to see my "illegal" water cache fill up with the spring rain. I take pleasure in the spring green, and the summer browning of the grass because I refuse to waste water to keep a lawn green. But I think what it all comes down to is loving the land is in my genes. My mother, my mothers grandmother, my brother all have been gardeners. Family time was full of camping out, hiking, or spending the summer outside in the beautiful Adirondacks.

Beyond that, I just connect with the land. If you do, you get what I am talking about. So, what happens in a garden?

Just a few very beautiful things.

rich dark dirt
worms
mud
seedlings
large leafy plants
flowers
food
a place for wild animals (a refuge in my neighborhood)
weeds and straw piled high to keep them down
survival
watering cans
gifts
growth
life
yearly cycles
a place to sit and be
challenges
dirt under your nails, in your hair
...