Secret Gardens

Secret Gardens

As I’ve mentioned recently, I characterize my property as having 30 or so separate gardens. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of how easily I can, or cannot, manage the scope of my gardening. But nonetheless, I do attack my gardening in segments that reflect my thinking or at least my aesthetic interests of the moment. I have always thought that compared to many people I have a pretty good three dimensional sensibility about me that allows me to envision an ultimate outcome in a three-dimensional manner. I’m certain that architects and some engineers are almost required to have this capability, and it is perhaps one of the reasons that I always thought that architecture might have been a field I would’ve enjoyed. Since that is never going to happen, and since I tend to leave much of the interior decoration at this time to Kim to give her her space and outlet for creativity, my three dimensional thinking tends to happen in the garden.

After Betty passed away last week, it was not hard to think that we should create a Betty memorial garden just as we had created the Cecil Garden in 2020. Few of us tend to take trips to the cemetery these days to pay homage to our ancestors, and I imagine even fewer spend time at whatever pet cemeteries exist. Nevertheless, there is a thriving marketplace online for memorial markers for pets. Mike and Melisa‘s beloved German Shepherd, Bravo, passed away last year. I went online and bought a natural rock carved with Bravo‘s name, and gave it to them as a memorial to a fine dog. Our Cecil garden has two or three similar ornaments that specify that we are in the area where we reflect on the days when we had Cecil with us. It seems to mean a lot to Kim and I would have to admit that I like having small areas of remembrance that are convenient to our every day life that causes us to stop and reflect once in a while on those we have lost. Kim has allowed me to include a brick in memory of my mother in the Cecil garden, and I will admit that I like being reminded to think for a moment about my mother every once in a while.

So, yesterday I barreled forward and established the Betty Garden. Kim and I had talked about where we would situate the garden, and it seemed logical to use the small knoll on the backside of the garage, a place where Betty liked to wander for a short walk and a quick pee. Kim in particular has always liked the back area of the garage because it used to be a bit of a snake-infested jungle until I cleaned it out a few years ago and made it a safe and relatively open area where we could store our trash bins and extra gardening paraphernalia. Since I opened it up, I have established the Fairy Village on the layered boulders to the east side and have been forced to replace several large agave century plants that went into their vertical death spiral a few years ago. In that southeast corner, I have planted a Palo Verde tree and a Tulip tree, as well as putting in several large pots, one with aloe plants, and one with a ponytail palm, that is already sprouted one ponytail pup. But that left the back knoll underneath our elevated owl box and next to our prolific fig tree.

Yesterday morning, I went to the nursery and decided that I would add a splash of flowering color in honor of Betty. What I found were seasonal mums of several different colors. What I like about mums is that they have two bloom cycles per year, one in the fall and one in the spring, and that makes them ideal low maintenance flowering plants for this sort of garden. I also bought some lovely yellow daisies to put on either end of the garden and some lovely, small white perennials the border the front. I took out a couple of the agave and ice plant pups that were growing on that knoll, because I know enough about gardening to know that you shouldn’t go too far with mixing drought-tolerant and water-loving plants in one spot. I also found a small but intricate piece of driftwood that I thought would provide a nice highlight feature. I put all of this in the knoll yesterday and saturated the ground to give the young transplanted roots a chance to take hold this morning. I’m taking the opportunity of a quiet Sunday to pot the succulents I had removed yesterday, and while I am not entirely sure where they will be placed eventually, for now they can sit on the low wall that defines the garden, and they will even look somewhat purposeful. I have already ordered two milestone markers to designate this as the Betty Garden, so I think my job is more or less done. Now Kim and I will have a place to occasionally remember Betty and the joy she brought to our lives.

I spend a lot of time reminding myself that it’s important to live in the present, and not to spend too much time either dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Despite my best efforts, I will admit to a certain amount of backward and forward wandering of my consciousness, but I think I am getting better at being in the moment with the help of the practice from my retirement. One of the reasons I like putting together these small memorial gardens, is that they allow me to enjoy three levels of consciousness, all at once. If I am sitting admiring the Cecil Garden, or sitting and admiring the Betty Garden, I will not only lose myself in reflection of our favorite pups, but I will be enjoying the sun on my face, the wind in my hair and the beautiful colors surrounding me in the garden. And then, of course, like all gardeners, I will spend at least a few moments thinking about what I have to do to tend to my garden, and when it will need everything from watering to weeding to pruning, and perhaps even to renovation.

I choose to call these Secret Gardens, even though I don’t really try and keep them a secret, quite the opposite, I tend to tell everyone who visits or anyone who reads my blog all about them. I don’t think I’m trying to force anyone to remember Cecil or remember Betty by telling them about these gardens, but rather, I’m broadcasting to them that Kim and I do care about the things that bring us peace and happiness in our lives, and that we do make a habit of remembering how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy these pets, the grounds we live on, the air we breathe and the consciousness that inhabits us. To me it’s like feeling the value of vocalizing our love for one another on a daily basis and our gratitude for all that we have. It’s not so much that I feel we are praying for remembrance, or praying for peace, but rather that we are giving thanks for the remembrance and for the peace that we already enjoy.

No one will ever spend more than a few moments wandering through any of my Secret Gardens, but I will spend many, many hours over time, sitting and pondering a little bit about the past, a little bit about the future, and an awful lot about the beauty of the world around us. Well, that shouldn’t be a secret. It is a very personal sentiment and one which we all have to come to in our own way. My way on this Sunday morning is to envision it, do it, write about it, and, finally, think about it for many years to come.