Friday, July 03, 2009

Summer colour


The garden is a glorious sight to behold at the moment, hot and humid, full of colour and goodness. Its an organic garden with fruit, vegetables and flowers mixed together in order to maximise variety and minimise damage.
And yet, my gooseberry bushes are being munched by a small green caterpillar. Thrushes eat the strawberries and strip some of the bushes. I am happy to share as it is my hope that this will be repaid by eating insects and others that damage the garden. I am of the belief that in time, the ecosystem in my garden will balance itself. In the meantime, I observe, make notes and document changes.

There is a certain magic to the garden. The more love it receives, the more it shows its glorious colours and delights which in turn is a reason to spend more time in it, adore it even more etc etc.It is a constant inspiration to me both in colour and texture and how in a small space, such variety can be grown and enjoyed. A lot of pruning, weeding and hard work goes into it but whatever you give your garden will be returned in many many ways. The garden is defenitely more alive, with creepy crawlies, with birds and buzzing insects.
Salad crops are abundant, strawberries shared with the birds, blackcurrants ripe, gooseberries for the picking. Courgettes starting to bear fruit, and the corn is ripening too. Its a work in progress and I love spending time in the garden. It is possible to get a high return from a small space.
Most of all, there is some healing and therapeutic value in the creation of the garden, based on the fact that the whole is more than the parts within it. The creation of this garden started with a neglected space, very overgrown bushes and now we are seeing the fruits of the labour poured into it. I wish you the same magic in your garden.

1 comment:

steve said...

Thank you for this pleasant post. We started a garden this year where there was only grass before. we did it all organic, too. but we planted late, so it hasn't come to full fruition yet. it has been a joy, anyway, to work with it. i like to water the plants. our sunflowers are very tall!

thank you again. and i like your idea of sharing the food with the nonhuman animals; that is kind.