LIFE IS LIKE A GARDEN

The longer days bring the opportunity to be outside and work in the garden after dinner. Rather than watch the news or summer reruns there is the chance to get some needed exercise. Along with the plants growing so do the weeds. Sometimes the weeds are more prolific than the flowers! Hum! since we have paths and gardens, the growth in the paths can be overwhelming. Not only weeds but little flowers like violets, daisies grow there. Seeds scatter everywhere and do not discriminate whether it is a flower bed or the path. So let them be until they flower or transplant back in the flower beds or just rip them out! The paths actually need a new base of stone on them. Over the years the stones have sunk into the ground. Like life we often need a new layer of something. Revisiting, rejuvenating and restoring what we have. Adding a refreshing top layer to the garden or to us. Gardens are a wonderful composite of life. Plants, bugs, bees, trees, bushes annuals, perennials and yes weeds grow in abundance. The longer the garden survives the more can arrive there. I remember the first years in our house with a backyard full of dirt and some flower beds with items transposed from the old house. Now the trees tall and shading the yard which Adolph complains about lack of sun for his vegetable garden. If I envisioned how green it would be 27years ago, I would not have worried about the brown and the dirt. Different stages of the garden are like different stages of life. The work involved is a mixed blessing for me. With my job I can not give it the attention it needs, so can not be pristine like in the gardening magazines. Some areas are a little wild with whatever finds its way there. I think of the future and how to have a nice garden that would be smaller but manageable. Life lets us move on to whatever is needed for us. A garden a metaphor for many things in our world. Does you garden bring joy? Work? Time to reflect? Where is your favourite spot in your garden?