Let's Start at the Beginning.
Gardens allow us to start over again each year with a fresh perspective.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” - Steve Jobs.
Hello Friends.
I recently sat with a friend in her new house, looking out at her future garden, moving from window to window to see how a garden might be framed from inside. With snow on the ground, it was easy to feel as if we were in a cloud-dream of all the possibilities. How lucky, I thought, that she is starting again from the beginning. A clean canvas of ideas ahead, yet starting a new garden is never easy. There are many steps along the way.
In the distance, tufts of wild grasses and dried seed heads poked up through the snow, indicating the former owner’s flower garden. “Do you think I should keep that garden?” she asked. No, I responded, this was to be your garden, the perfect time to start over with a fresh perspective. “Keep a few plants, maybe,” I added.
This moment reminded me of starting my first garden decades earlier, and how little I knew about where to site it, which plants to choose, or really anything about design. I didn’t even know how to start seeds or recognize weeds, but I had a vision of what I wanted to see. I was fresh out of art school, eager to create something beautiful. I marked the boundaries with four sticks and twine, dug up a thick layer of turf, and removed the rocks. I measured out long, straight rows, planted seeds from packets I had bought at the hardware store, watered and walked away.
I would be stretching the truth to say the garden thrived. There was a constant battle with the weeds, and the garden hose didn’t quite reach, so the plants were frequently thirsty. Yet I look back on this time with a sense of awe at how far I have come, and how much knowledge I have accumulated over the years, inch by inch, row by row.
Gardens reflect who we are and what we have become. Gardens give us the opportunity to start at the beginning and begin again, to find new seeds and plants to grow that will enrich our enjoyment and add to our environment. Every January, when the new garden season begins, I get out the graph paper and start doodling a design, figuring out how to fit all the new plants I want to try.
The truth is, for several weeks I have been searching for a worthy topic to write about, something to counter the news, to offer encouragement to you for your own garden. Yet each day, it gets harder to know what to say. One thing I know for sure, however, is that gardens, more than ever, are something that truly matters. We could all benefit from cultivating a piece of the earth and surrounding ourselves with greenery. It’s one small step we can take toward a greener, saner world.
"In difficult times, carry something beautiful in your heart". - Blaise Pascal
I’ve discovered that putting ideas on paper first helps, which is why I left my friend with a large sheet of graph paper and suggested she first draw a big-picture view of her property, perhaps create a five-year plan. “It will help establish the vision and create the dots that will begin to connect over the years,” I told her. I could already imagine her snowy yard soon filled with paths, plants, trees, and benches, providing a sanctuary for her and all the wildlife that would come forth.
After two decades, my own garden is well-established, and I know it would be hard to start over, but I am tempted. And so this garden dreaming of mine begins again, with a new season, several seed catalogs, and more ideas percolating. I’m ready to look at the garden with fresh eyes, as if I were just starting over.
From my garden to yours,
Ellen Ecker Ogden
Author of The New Heirloom Garden and The Complete Kitchen Garden, among other books for cooks who love to garden.
p.s. I’ll be teaching The Art of Growing Food at Longwood Gardens on January 27th. Click here for more info.
