The Garden

The Seasons

In the Spring, flowers and saplings appear.  Maybe they were your own seeds, maybe you got them elsewhere; it doesn’t matter.  When they are yours, you give them food and love and care.  It is joyful seeing them grow.  Every day, they seem more promising.  You can imagine how much sturdier they will be next month.  You can imagine how they will adapt to nature and thrive.  As you watch the first leaves opening, you can imagine the glorious beauty they will display one day.  And they do thrive.  Each month you see the changes and the changes are wonderful.

In the Summer, they burst forth with flowers.  You may be a bit tired from all the work involved, but it is worth it.  You are proud of what you have accomplished, and you are proud of them.  They really did most of the growing themselves, but your work mattered too.  You did your best to keep the weeds away, sometimes you supported them while they grew upright and healthy.  You made sure they had everything they needed that you could give them.  They are mature and beautiful!  You still try to keep some weeds away, but they are mostly doing great without your help.  Maybe there are a few fallen leaves, but they are in their prime and some new leaves grow.

You are changing from the nurturer of young plants to the protector of older ones.  It takes some time to realize this, but you do your best to adapt to the change.  As a gardener, you do what you must as best you can.

In the Fall, things are not going quite so well.  The bloom is off the flowers, they droop a bit, and they need bit of unexpected help from time to time.  But that OK, because they are still doing well overall.  In the late Fall, things are not so good.  They feel cold at nights, they aren’t flowering or growing new leaves, and the stalks and limbs are hardening.  In fact, the leaves are starting to fall

In the Winter, the leaves start to fall and are not replaced.  Flowerstalks become dry and bare.  The old trees slow down their activity.  The end of their season is coming, slowly at first, but relentlessly.  The last leaves fall from the trees; the last flowers die and fall.  No amount of care and assistance can stop that.  Eventually, a day comes when all activity ceases.  You face the sad truth that an end is coming in spite of all you do.

More tomorrow...