YESTERDAY, IT WAS MY READING GLASSES; the week before, a favorite trowel. What is it with the garden that it has to be so hungry, so greedy–swallowing up all my belongings one at a time? Lost anything in your garden lately? (Thanks, Andre Jordan, for this vintage doodle.)
I WATCHED A ZOOM lecture the other day that really put into words a lot of the ways my own deepening understanding of ecology is shaking up the way I practice horticulture—from spring cleanup, right on to the last chore of the active year. The lecturer was Rebecca McMackin, director of horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City, where she leads the team that manages 85 acres of diverse parkland with a central focus on habitat creation of woodlands, wetlands, and meadows to build soils and support birds, butterflies, and other organisms.
We talked about the dynamic tactics they use and when and why–a whole different approach to spring cleanup, where the life cycles of animals (from insects on up) dictate what happens when, garden maintenance-wise. Like why some things don’t get cut back, and others that are still seed-laden when they do have their seeds collected and set aside, then returned to the spot after whatever cleanup is needed there.
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
somehow my grandfather’s hammer disappeared into the garden. We had a friend’s daughter come by with her metal detector and do a full sweep of the yard to no avail. The handle of the hammer was almost exactly the same color as the wood chips carpeting large swaths of the yard and to this day the hammer has not resurfaced…we still live in hope.
Did you hear about the woman who lost her engagement ring and years later it turned up attached to a carrot?
Hi, Kathy. That’s hilarious. Was it proposing to her? :)
Hi, Jamie and Shawn. I have lost hammers outside but so far have always found them. Fingers crossed for your grandfather’s!
My patience!!! My patience when I have to stop gardening and go in because:
– sun went down
– have to make dinner
– someone thinks it’s more important to have clean clothes then a weed free patch
– etc.. etc.. etc..
In two years I will retire and garden until I want to quit.
Lost my glasses, searched everywhere. Found them three years later in the raspberry patch.
Hi, Susan. Was the prescription still good? :)
Oooh, Kathy – you just made retirement look that much better! I lol’d at your comment! Sounds like my life around here! Clean? Cook? WHAT?
This conversation has been wonderfully entertaining. Thanks for bringing it up Margaret. I guess we can all relate to it in one way or another but I’ve been thinking………..maybe it isn’t us after all. Maybe it’s the garden fairies! Just sayin…
Yes, two stories….(well, three)
One year I planted a new “Sunsprite” rose at my S. California home. I could not find my glasses! Unfortunately, the next year the rose died. I dug it out of the ground, and lo and behold, there were my glasses attached to the root!
I had a pair of Fiskar flower clippers. Lost them at my N. California home (we had moved), and the next spring I found them under water in a plastic bin I had left on my potting bench over the winter. They were miraculously in good shape!
My husband, however, never did find his wedding ring he lost in our Owosso, Michigan garden!
Hi, Rhonda. You are quite the clever misplacer of things in the garden — excellent jobs on all counts in hiding them from yourself! Love these stories (except your husband’s rin, so sorry). See you soon.