Mock Orange in the Forest Garden

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

Almost 15 years ago, I began researching permaculture and started planning a garden that would care for us and itself … a forest garden. We moved several tons of municipal leaves each year to various parts of the land we steward to build soil tilth. Year by year, we invited our dirt to shift from hard-pan clay to a more complex, rich, and lofty soil. We removed the lawn and an overgrowth of roses and Himalayan blackberry to plant baby trees and bushes, nurturing a vision of what could be.

And now, what could be has arrived. Not exactly what I expected, but that’s another story. For now, I am celebrating with you the beauty of this Redwood bench that’s been with us 20 years, tucked into a thicket between quince and cherry trees. Goumi berries ripen in the understory, and I’ve recently added deer and maiden hair ferns to the ground level. Oxalis and Wild Ginger already thrive here. Our native Columbine, a delicate coral and yellow, is in bloom on both sides. Behind the bench, Mock Orange has spread her petals to emit the most intoxicating fragrance. Sitting on this bench, I inhale in wonder at how momentum carries us. What was once a dream has over time become not only something I can see, smell, taste, and touch … it is an actual forest garden that feeds and protects many species.

When have you committed to growing something over and over until the beauty of it emerged in ways largely unexpected? Do you take time to sit in the shade of your dream-become-reality, to breathe in the wonder of co-creativity?