It was hard to do but I did it.  I said goodbye to my garden…

It can be hard to say goodbye to children, parents and homes but it’s all a part of life.  Ultimately we manage and at times even learn to embrace it.  For a plantswoman, leaving a garden is also hard.  The garden is like a child, you plant things as babies and watch them grow.    Or like a parent as they teach you things you never knew, like trying to grow something different or test out a new skill (like air layering or starting something from seed).  The garden also teaches you something about yourself and those around you (“you are crazy to grow a tree from a seed”).

My garden was my outdoor home.   When I walked through it felt like it was greeting me, inviting me to sit and contemplate, to eat, to play, and of course to work.   Renovation of a garden is similar to the renovation of a house.   Take down that wall, get rid of that ugly thing, try a new color here.   When I moved in this garden was a wire fence, five different kinds of gravel, landscape timbers, posts and ropes and junipers seemingly too numerous to count.   A rotting deck was around the pond and basalt rocks were used as a ground cover to hold the upper bank.    In the eight years I lived there fences came down, decking was replaced by flagstone,  a new ledge-stone wall over flowing with plants replaced the basalt rock and we invited a lovely family of koi into the newly cleaned and maintained pond.   One year my brother was married in the gazebo (rotting decking and railings replaced after a good pressure washing and annuals planted around).   Then two years ago my sister was married there as well (lower pond wall built, leveled and lawn added to sit fifty people on it).    Events have shaped the garden, along with trials of new plants and new methods.   I had a greenhouse built under one of the decks so I would have someplace to overwinter the red banana and other tropicals I love to experiment with.   A fabulous pond was built below the house by my then husband and his friend, both employee’s of a company with the necessary big equipment.  A bad winter took down some pyramadalis around the shop and I replaced them with bamboo because it is so much more beautiful.

My small 1/2 acre lot never felt that way.

(I know you are getting it now)

Saying goodbye to my Garden was hard.

I am lucky that the people who purchased my house were very enthused about the garden.  One of the owners grew up with a mother as a florist and was surrounded by plants.   He was so excited by all the things blooming in the garden and the transition from week to week as the sale process took a long time to complete.   The quote in the email I got today was  “We love it here so much we don’t want to leave’.

Questions about watering, the ponds and the plants are all welcome because I still feel invested in that garden.   I love it and want to see it continue to flourish.  Things I started as young plants will become mature,  the Davidia tree will bloom the first time and ground covers will become a lovely mat all for them… and that’s okay.    It feels good to leave a beautiful space behind for someone else to continue to work, enjoy, and harvest.

The day I left for the last time I walked through and said goodbye.  I touched plants and wished them growth and beauty.  I remembered when I planted them and the love and care I gave them.  I remembered successes and failures,  good times and bad,  love and hatred (slugs and morning glory).   The stories that garden could tell could go on and on but maybe these pictures will help tell the story.

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