Gardner's Journal: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It seems to me that I've left out some things about having a garden.

Sure there are the roses and the beauty and all the things that I love about the garden. The sweet smell of wet earth, the water in the ponds, the green in spring.

But there's a whole other side of things that I've haven't talked much about. There's a lot of death, destruction and disease in gardens.

And the weeds! The weeds! The weeds!

My garden is no paradise. I spent a good portion of my weekend work time crouched down, weed tool in hand, fishing for and findng plenty of weeds.

It would be naiive to believe that a garden such as mine -- or any garden for that matter is just one happy place. That nothing dies, nothing loses its color, only good things emerge.

Fact is, my husband has his own little war waging with a family of moles. Each morning he reviews the garden and I'll hear a little "ackkk!" when he sees the new mole hill that has been dug overnight.

This war has been waging for some time and now Dan has recruited others including my son into the battle. Recently, while digging around a new pond that we're putting in, Nathan hit (literally) upon a mole nest. He thought they were cute. Dan saw it as an opportunity to take no captives.

Dan quickly got out his smoke bombs and other paraphenalia and went to work. He commanded Nathan to put the bombs down into the nest and then they hid and watched.

Dan was quite pleased with himself, showing me and others about his recent victory. "Here's where the nest was.." he said, gleaming like a victorious sargent, sure of his win.

Next morning, there were half a dozen more mole hills where the moles retaliated during the black night.

In addition to the moles, there are the black spots that are now filling my roses because the temperatures in April have been unseasonably cool and wet. There are the weeds that sprout as quickly as I can pull them. There are the rose bushes that never bloomed though I followed precise instructions and lovngly planted them.

Life in a garden is like life anywhere- full of disappointments, aches, pains.

Part of being a gardeners is the faith that it requires to keep planting, dreaming, becoming. It's the reality the garden will never realize my desires for it, but yet it can exceed it in many other ways. I didn't realize that the water birch would get so big or that the pergola would be so shady or that the redbud would have such glossy leaves. There are the everyday surprises that border upon the miraculous that keep all gardeners faithful to the task.

There is always more work to do and there are times when I wonder, "is this ever going to be finished" and I know the answer.

No. It will never be completed. Nor should it be.