Reflections of an Aging Gardener-Writer
My Garden This Morning
When my husband and I developed our gardens fifty years ago, I didn’t realize how much work we’d created for our retirement. I was young. Enthusiastic. And dreamed of creating a horticultural paradise.
We planted a wide shelterbelt of spruce trees, green ash, lilacs, and chokecherries. Dug a dry creek bed and bordered it with stones. Enriched the soil for beds of shrubs and perennials. Covered paths with a thick layer of bark mulch. And filled large planters with exuberant, colourful annuals.
Yesterday morning, I sat at my desk and looked out at this green and lovely landscape. A gentle rain dimpled the surface of the ornamental pond and splashed onto the sidewalk. Trees and shrubs dripped moisture onto beds of flowers and heavily mulched paths. As a gardener in dryland Saskatchewan, I welcomed the respite from fears of drought and wildfires. And as a rural writer, I embraced the blessing of a guilt-free day at my computer.
Big gardens require constant work. Seeding, transplanting, weeding, pruning, deadheading, harvesting. . . For half a century, those activities dominated my life. Gardening wasn’t just my job; it was also my hobby. I spent winters reading about magnificent landscapes and poring over catalogues of exotic seeds. Summers I grew herbs, fruit, and vegetables, and maintained my “pleasure garden.”
Today, the enormity of that task weighs on me. The planted landscape has been invaded by lawn grass and other weeds. It needs more work than I can give it. The problem isn’t just the physical challenge to my aging body. My priorities have changed; I have books to write. So, every day I’m in a quandary. Spend the afternoon weeding flowerbeds smothered in grass, or write six hundred words? Attempt to eradicate imperialistic clematis seedlings, or revise another chapter of my novel?
I still love gardening; I just I can’t devote as much time to it as I previously did. And since employing a full-time assistant isn’t an option, I need to cut back. But, how? It’s something we all must consider at some point—how to make a graceful transition from youth to old age. In the meantime, my debut novel is listed in ECW’s Fall catalogue for retailers and will appear on bookstore shelves in September. For that, I am grateful.
