The temperature outside is dropping rapidly. Chicken chores are done, the dog has been walked, and the mail has been brought in. Now as I sit in the living room with daylight dwindling, I hear Ella (my cat) purring loudly behind my head and Jack (my dog) stretching at my feet. My peripheral vision picks up the warm glow of the fire that is keeping these below-freezing-temperatures at bay.
I pulled up the picture I had taken for the front page and zoomed in. I love the carefully planned layout Ed designed when we first planned what to put on the land we owned. But the inner-gardener in me has morphed into a more “wild” gardener. I have incorporated more permaculture aspects to the layout and design around the fruit trees. These tree gardens, also known as guilds, are the way I would like my garden to work as a whole. Deep-rooted plants like comfrey, working together to bring nutrients up from below for the benefit of those with shallower roots. Broad-leafed plants like rhubarb and horseradish being used as green mulch to keep weeds at bay. Flowers that attract pollinators, enticing these creatures to the trees where they will find that lovely nectar, pollinate the tree and enhance fruit production. Beneficial bugs coming in droves to these flowers and ridding the garden of the not so beneficial ones.
So as I sit here by the fire and gaze at the lovely garden so carefully laid out so many years ago, the wild gardener schemes and plans how to make it a wilder place that still has that quiet peace that gardens often bring to those who need a respite.