Micro & Macro Views....

When I was cleaning up my garden this weekend, I pondered how best to go about it. Now I've long since given up trying to be efficient when I garden. I try to think of it like any other art, which means there's plenty of waste along the way, and that usually means my own time.

I think we succumb, depending on our natures, to looking at the garden very closely as we work, fiddling around with minutia when larger tasks might be more important. Or we tend to take the long view and neglect the details which make the garden so satisfying. It's so easy this time of year to be drawn into picking up every twig, tidying every plant (which reveals my nature, I'm afraid).....Or if we stand back and take the macro view, to simply gloss through the garden, cutting back the raspberry canes, piling on some mulch, whittling away at the big jobs.

If there was one thing I learned from writing "Artists In Their Gardens", it was that the artists were remarkably skilled at looking closely and getting the details right, but also seeing the garden as a whole and creating masterful atmospheres and settings. They could alternate between micro and macro views of their garden, which makes the work more fun and productive, and the result more enchanting.

So on this cold, sunny morning, I tried to look at my garden closely enough to tend to the plants that needed the most help right now, without getting wrapped up in any idea of a final spring clean up. I also tried to step back enough to make some real progress toward general tidiness. After all, it's nearly time to plant sweet peas and lettuces....

Micro view - there's so much to be done even in this single square foot of garden space....

 

Bridget contemplates the macro view of the garden in late winter...

Comments

[Jan LaFollette]

Are those galvinized stock watering tanks? Do you have small trees planted in all three, maybe more, I can only see three. I love the look and idea of that, more info in a future blog PLEASE! So, much classier than wood half-barrels.

[Deirdre]

Personally, I'm ADHD, so I am likely to go out to do one thing, and end up doing several other things. Then, there's the dominoe effect in gardening. You go out to do A, but you can't do that until you've done B, which you can't do until you've done C which must be acompanied by doing D. You're lucky if you ever get back to A.

[valerie Easton]

Hi Jan,
Yes, those are galvanized feed troughs, which must be the least expensive alternative for really big planters. I have a bay tree in the center of one (died back to the roots in December) and a little columnar apple in the other. One has tulips coming up, to be followed by tomatoes. They're available at feed stores, be sure and drill plenty of holes in the bottom so they drain freely....
Val