September 8th, 2007 Grow Old Along With Me
With each passing year, change becomes the one constant of life. Sometimes the changes we experience are quite subtle. Then there are the changes that virtually scream at you, shaking you out of the comfortable normality life has become. Change is never a bad thing when you think about it. Every change we experience offers a new challenge, a new opportunity to grow. We learn how much we are capable of, and more often than not, surprise ourselves at how resourceful we truly are. There are those who resist change with the tenacity of a bulldog. Others constantly seek out the adventure of change, never content to live in a static world. Most of us linger in the neutral zone somewhere between the two extremes.
As gardeners, we know all about change. We see it every year on a grand scale, and every day on a less obvious one. Our gardens could not exist without changing. Nature could not exist without changing. Were it not for change, there would be no butterflies gracing our gardens. Four seasons would become one long boring stretch of sameness.
The gardens we plant constantly change. Perennials in glorious bloom for a brief time become foliar interest. Annuals continually grow taller, bushier and their flowers come and go all season.
Occasionally we force change ourselves by adding or removing plants, or by simply substituting the old standards we have been potting up in our container gardens, with something different.
Sometimes it is Mother Nature herself that forces a dramatic rearrangement in the garden. An old tree unable to withstand the ice and winds of winter is sadly brought down. With its removal our landscape is forever changed. Perhaps another tree will take its place or, we will take advantage of the additional sunlight by planting a new garden.
With the natural progression of time, our gardens mature, as do we. Despite our best efforts, age becomes apparent in the landscape as well as on our faces. You can fight it, but you will eventually lose. Mother Nature always has the upper hand. The next time you notice a new wrinkle, take a walk through your maturing garden and think of the words written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning “Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be” and celebrate maturity.
And for the record, no, I did not just have another birthday.
