Welcome to the inside of my head after a busy growing season when I’m trying to remember why I choose to keep gardening.
Please indulge me a bit of self analysis. Like a bower bird, I have a tendency to hang on to colorful, bright shiny things. Like a neurotic squirrel, I never trash anything, although in my case rather than provisions, I stash thoughts and multiple drafts of anything I jot down.
An aside: From our elevated stoop I can look down on the front garden. It’s a good perspective to identify what needs attention in the same way that looking backwards through binoculars makes you feel like you’ve got all the room (time?) in the world. The other day I noticed a peanut shell high in the branches of a Hollywood juniper, clearly the work of my neighborhood nemesis.
I digress…
The other day while looking through computer files for who knows what, I found notes I made after visiting an installation created by The Exquisite Garden Project, a group based in the Bay Area that explores collaborative creativity resulting in temporary “gardens.”
“…like a freshly planted seed, our loose coalition of creatives has flourished and grown. Together, we have managed to find a venue and the time to produce one installation a year incorporating more and more treasures collected over the preceding year. Each year the experience has become deeper, more profound and more addictive. Gardeners have come and gone, with new members invited to participate wherever we are installing the Garden.”
Exquisite Garden The Nest Project, 2013
In 2013 on a work trip to San Francisco, over a morning coffee meeting, I learned about the latest Exquisite installation located in the corner of a remote parking lot in an industrial neighborhood of Oakland. The installation, entitled The NEST Project, was inspired by the satin bowerbird and the remarkable constructions, often featuring blue objects, that the male of the species creates in an effort to lure a mate. In essence, “gardening” a plot to find love.
Yes, I know. Anthropomorphizing nature is disingenuous; the mating pair of bowerbirds aren’t “in love” in the same way that Emperor penguins, while devoted parents, aren’t really being romantic even though when they put their two heads together, it forms a heart. [gag]
Still image from March of the Penguins courtesy of Warner Bros.
Wow, this rant has gone off the rails.
So to answer my own question about why I keep plotting, planning, digging and toiling when it would be so much easier to NOT. I guess some creatures – gardeners included – will do anything for love.
Details, Exquisite Garden The Nest Project, 2013
I’ve been wondering that from a totally different place. Given severe drought this summer I seem to have spent most of my time simply trying to keep the garden alive. It begins to feel like a very odd thing to do: keep it going until winter! Hurray for winter!
There have been seasons/years when my garden and I are definitely on the outs. “It’s not you, it’s me” sort of thing. However, like most things in the garden, challenging and otherwise, time works its magic and the urge to garden resurfaces and the slate is wiped clean. Winter is very good at that.