Tend Your Garden

Originally posted July 27, 2009:

I got a small bonsai tree today. I know fairly little about the art of keeping such a tree. My prefered type of plant to keep are cacti and succulents. Even during the hottest part of the San Diego summer, I can keep my aloe vera in full sun being generally ignored except for occasional water (and I emphasize occasional). One pot I planted about two years ago currently is attempting an escape as green tendrils creep over the walls of the vessel.

I generally dislike overly controlled/high maintenance forms of plant life. I really dislike the people who keep lush green lawns in arid environments. There isn’t much water in this area, note the naturally occurring shrubs on the hillsides.And yet some people keep and water their green, green lawns. Is your extra piece of vanity worth the extra hours of watering, trimming and feeding? No, I would prefer a rock garden or at least more better suited plants in my front yard. There is beauty allowing nature to take its course (plus you save a huge amount of water, a nontrivial effect given the current drought and population growth in southern California) I believe that my job in gardening is to provide room, water and sunlight. Other than that, my job is to leave the plant fucking alone.

When you let a plant grow on its own, uninhibited by your own desires, wants and rules, it can also be free from my inadequecies, weaknesses and limitations. And I have many. I need not a minor clone of myself in plant form, I want a different influence upon my life. Perhaps then I can learn something anew from the trees.

Many times when writers end a story with a moral, a prepackaged lesson condensed for the reader’s easy consumption. However, such a method traps the piece in an analytical cage. It cannot mean anymore than the writer puts in the picture. Many times when a parent raises a child with certain rules, a prepackaged lesson that seeks the generate a clone of the parents. The child is shackled and cannot grow beyond the limitations of the parents. I take each endeavor in life as a chance to cultivate a new garden in the backyard and minds of others.