Garden Gifts

ALANDA GREENE extols the benefits and virtues of tending a garden, the elevation of beauty in the work, and the way gardening restores our awareness of our kinship with Nature.

- ALANDA GREENE

I'm standing in the garden, enjoying the hum of insects intent on collecting as much nectar as possible. The season has clearly shifted, transitioning from languid long days of summer to cool nights, shorter days and a sense there is no time to lose. It's a time of abundance accompanied by reflection and assessment. What do I want to keep, to nurture and what is ready to be released, discontinued?

These questions arise as I consider the garden's production this year, planning what will be maintained, what I will no longer plant, what varieties are proving suitable, what needs processing. It becomes ever more clear that the lessons of the garden are the lessons of my life, and it is working in the garden that provides the most accessible insights into my life: the seasons, the patterns, and cycles. Now 75, I especially feel resonance with autumn, the period of reaping lessons from many years, ripening my understanding of the way the round squash has matured from a soft ball to a firm and nutritiously dense vegetable that will contribute to many meals in the coming months.

This process of assessment and reflection brings immense gratitude for being part of the garden's cycle, for the lessons it teaches. How fitting it is that much of the world celebrates this season with rituals of thanksgiving. The garden reveals so many aspects of appreciation.