Re: Steve French's Philosophical 'Q'

Moira,
I think for me the most exciting time in gardening is always just
around the corner, where anticipation of sweet success (usually
ever just out of reach) meets pleasure in nature's beauty;
striving in one direction meets unexpected reward in quite another
direction. I can't wait, for example, until my garden is richly
organic and crawling with earthworms the way yours must be; but
I love the process of getting there.  I love collecting seeds and
rooting new plants -- I love giving away surplus plants to friends
who admire them.  I love digging my hands in the dirt and pulling
out new potatoes, popping strawberries in my mouth while watching
hummingbirds and butterflies, laughing because my daughter loves
blueberries and raspberries so much that they never make it inside the 
house. I get so excited just talking about gardening that people say "You 
must have a beautiful garden", and I am always surprised, because I really 
don't -- it's all an untidy jumble but it thrills
me so that they think it must be beautiful.  And finally, I love to
go to friends' garden and garden with them...such different visions,
different talents, different preferences, which energize me and
inspire me to run home to my own garden.
Anne


>From: Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
>Reply-To: theryans@xtra.co.nz
>To: Mediterannean Plants List <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
>Subject: Re: Steve French's Philosophical 'Q'
>Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 19:34:03 +1300
>
> > "helene.pizzi" wrote:
> >
> > Every time Sean O'Hare ends his comments for this e-mail discussion
> > group, he ends with the exact philosophical gardening spirit that I
> > feel we all should have.  He writes:
> >
> >                  HORTULUS APTUS
> >
> >                     A Garden Suited to it's Purpose
> >
> > This is what I have printed on a rough hunk of white marble from the
> > quarries of Cararra (Micheangelo's 'Pietà was made from this marble).
>
>Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this fascinating and very
>worthwhile discussion  -  from Steve who deserves everyone's gratitude
>for proposing the subject to Helen who I feel most effectively rounds it
>off. I have saved all your letters and propose to print them off as my
>own personal copy of a series of beautiful essays on the philosophy of
>gardening.
>
>As I rather expected it has shown that gardening is an intensly personal
>experience, about which any true gardener will have strong feelings, and
>like all you other folks who have replied to this thread I cannot resist
>adding my two cents.
>
>I guess my love of gardening is the main expression of my very long-term
>love affair with nature, and particularly the plant kingdom, which led
>me to become a professional botanist and ecologist and for more than
>half of my life a  passionate student and advocate of the organic way.
>
>Though my garden is not formless I must admit my interest is more in the
>plants than the design. As Tony says it is largely a plantswoman's
>garden, though nevertheless many people have derived pleasure from
>looking through it. One of the services I have been able to do for the
>public as my knowledge of organics has deepened is to grow a pretty
>successful chemical-free vegetable garden and use it both to learn
>myself and to demonstrate organic methods to visiting groups. In fact it
>is not a large patch, being constrained by the limited flat ground
>available, but it goes a long way to feeding Tony and me with fresh and
>healthful produce and we also grow a selection of fruits suited to the
>area - you should taste our raspberries!!.
>
>In one sense I have suffered disappointment with my garden of 45 years,
>as in my early adult life in Africa I was enthralled by descriptions of
>alpine gardens and when I exchanged Kenya for New Zealand I looked
>forward enormously to being able to have just such a garden, but alas,
>while there are great alpine gardens in parts of our far south, this
>part of the country is simply not the right place and in fact has a
>climate pretty close to Mediterranean, though somewhat higher in total
>rainfall.. One thing which however went a long way to console me was
>that my garden proved a great home for all sorts of Med. bulbs including
>delicious miniature  Narcissus species like the bulbocodium group,
>cyclaminius and its offspring, and the exquisite triandrus. It is also
>apparently the perfect site for almost any  snowdrop and this is one
>group in which I tend to collect any species I can lay hands on as each
>occupies its own special niche in time, so that several months each year
>from autumn to early spring the year is graced by a succession of these
>lovely bulbs.
>
>One other very Med group which loves my garden is the miniature Cyclmen
>group and I have most of the species, except for some of the very rare
>ones, with the two most vigorous kinds (hederefolium and coum)
>naturalized in several parts of the garden.
>
>So in certain cases (like the Galanthus and Cyclamen) where every
>species is a superior garden plant I could be described as a keen
>collector, but with many other genera, and particularly among non-bulbs,
>I have found that the popular species are definitely the pick of the
>bunch (no doubt why the are so popular) and more obscure sorts obtained
>with difficulty have frequently proved a disappointment..
>
>Apart from the bulbs, my ornamental garden is a grand mix of all sorts
>of things from roses (mainly the English Austin group and some
>old-fashioned climbers) all the way to various native species, some of
>which (particularly ferns) come up in my garden without any help, as we
>have some (fairly degraded) natural bush on the hillside up above us and
>many seeds are brought into the garden by birds or wind. Due to the
>garden's sloping site I have a fascinating variety of microclimates from
>hot sunny terraces to quite deep shade, which of course call for
>interestingly different treatment as far as selection of species and
>soil modification treatment is concerned.
>
>One of the bonuses of organic gardening is the gradual building-up
>throughout the garden of a well-balanced ecosystem with ever-increasing
>friendly bird and insect life and correspondingly ever less problems
>with pests and diseases. One effect it has had is to break down many of
>my predudices about weeds, and as a result I have become an increasingly
>untidy gardener, as I leave odd patches about the place to shelter and
>feed various insects and also as as a safe haven for my friends the
>spiders.
>
>And like all "mad" gardeners I have my triumphs when some planting works
>especially well, for instance at the present moment I wish you could
>visit me to share the delicious perfume of Rhododendron formosanum whose
>pure white flowers are especially sweet at night. Last night when we
>came home about eleven after attending a dinner it greeted us as soon as
>we emerged from the car, although the garage is fifty or sixty feet away
>from where it grows on the bank  by the front door..
>
>Moira
>--
>Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
>Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
>

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