After the nightly rain storm, my mentor Bob and I walked in the garden. We needed a stretch and to pick peppers, okra, eggplant, and basil for easy dinner of pasta and think about garden goals for the season. And the Sugar-bear-dog needed to drink and roll in some mud puddles.

Walking in the garden elicits great conversation. Bob does that, too. So I learned a lot about me, about AA, about group consciousness, and I don’t recall one specific plant, except the food providers.

The garden looks fantastic, don’t get me wrong. But this is a transition time for some new garden goals.

We have time to think and evaluate and plan, not just the garden and killer combinations, but the intentions and the pictures we want to see materialize.

I want to see in my gardens, in my writing, in my life, more plants that offer great nutrition while looking great in the garden. Probably, those plants are already there, just waiting for me to discover that they are more than a pretty face.

Garden Goals and Opportunities

I want gardens I build to provide opportunity for young gardeners, to get jobs, to learn skills, to engage with plants and people. To provide places for older gardeners to remember, to pass on what they’ve experienced and interact with plants and younger people.

Does it all sound hokey and woo-woo?

This week, we, not the royal we, the group- conscience we, welcomed a new guy to the team. A few actually, but one I’ll tell you about today.

He’s landscaped since his early teens, is of a farming family and was working a cold-call sales job with little satisfaction. Now, Marvin James is embarking on caring for an arboretum throughout, in public spaces of tiny Lake City, South Carolina.

So we envisioned this thing, worked for it, started it with scrapes of fire-sale trees, kept good records and clear vision. Now it’s happening. He is going to nurture it. Now this local fella has an chance to thrive, in his own backyard, from his own roots. We made it happen through the love and understanding of how plants nourish us.

How cool is that?