| A continuing series of interviews with those who have discovered
much about themselves and their life in their very own garden.
Lynne D'Orsay, 46, Tampa Florida, says gardening helped her get
in touch with her creativity, patience and vision--parts of herself that
she had repressed for a long time. She was brought up to be pragmatic,
conservative, down-to-earth, "disdainful of anyone who pursued any activity
that was not 'useful.'"
As she approached 30, she realized she yearned for something she
couldn't articulate. "I went through a long process of identifying parts
of myself that I had never allowed to flourish. Without any conscious thought,
my garden came to reflect these changes."
How did you first begin
gardening?
I grew up on a dairy farm. The vegetable garden was an integral
part of that growing-up experience. My sister and I had many chores, one
of which was weeding. I enjoyed weeding as much as I did casting down fresh
savings after we had de-mucked the stalls. A sense of a job well done, contented
animals and plants, a fresh clean start. As I am 46, I guess I have been
gardening for about 42 years.
What has gardening taught you about yourself?
Have you discovered parts of yourself through gardening?
Gardening has taught me an infinite amount. That I have creativity,
patience and vision. These were parts of myself that I repressed until about
age 30. I was brought up to be pragmatic, conservative, down-to-earth, and
rather disdainful of anyone who pursued any activity that was not 'useful.'
( Realize that I grew up in the New England puritan tradition.)
As I approached 30, I realized how much I yearned for something
I couldn't even articulate. I went through a long process of identifying
parts of myself that I had never allowed to flourish. Without any conscious
thought, my garden came to reflect these changes. From growing only vegetables,
I began to experiment with flowers.
As the years progressed, my garden became my tapestry, a canvas
upon which I came to paint. It is now a place of beauty, a place that in
an urban area, friends and family come to find a place of inner quiet and
peace, a grotto filled with fruits and flowers and many surprises.
For some, gardening is therapy. Is it like
this for you? If so, how?
Gardening was integral to my growing process, my coming to know
myself. As I came to find great unknown reservoirs within myself, my garden
reflected those places.
Working in the garden every day that I possibly can, centers me,
connects me to the earth and all its living things. I do composting, vermiculture
(worming), and xeriscaping.
My garden is a place where every living thing gets the opportunity
to express itself in a connection with humanity. For example, I have several
types of blueberry bushes - low bush for the humans, high bush for the birds.
I try to allow plants to express themselves as well, letting one seed itself
in multiple places, watching another dominate a bed, observing how some plants
suit one mini-environment, while others prefer another.
I have also 'rescued' some plant specimens from old sites that are
about to be developed. This year, some lilies - I think - should bloom for
the first time- I found them at what I surmised to be an old homestead, possibly
from around 1800, from the age of the fruit trees, and the variety of stone
wall that was built, before it got bulldozed. These lilies had been completely
choked out by new-growth trees. I know these lilies are a link to the past.
Some woman, I'm sure, planted them over one hundred years ago - I can't tell
you what satisfaction I took in finding and transplanting these plants to
my own garden, where they are about to bloom. As someone who has no biological
family at all that I know of, I take a lot of comfort in finding links to
the past, connections to women who lived long ago, in my area, before
me.
What do you grow? Where do you garden? How
many acres do you plant?
I grow perennials, annuals, fruits and vegetables in a backyard
in the city of Portsmouth NH. Acres are not part of the vocabulary. In my
back yard, which is about 100 X 50 feet, and a small space along the side,
I have pears, cherry, plums, apricot, apples and peaches, blueberries, strawberry
beds, raspberries and blackberries. I have 8 raised beds (each one I dug
down 1 1/2 feet and sifted all the dirt through chicken wire, brought in
manure and added compost) with every perennial available to zone 5. Each
features a special part of the growing season, so that the eye is drawn to
one area, depending on the time of year. There are hemlocks I grew from 1
gallon containers that are now full-grown, and 5 blue-spruce I grew from
seed.
What is your favorite thing to grow? Why is
this your favorite?
I don't really have a favorite thing to grow, but I do have a few
favorite plants that it will most pain me to leave behind as I move to Florida.
The asarum (European ginger) is probably one of my favorites, just because
I love it's rich deep foliage. And the blue-spruce trees, in their 3rd year
and just starting to come into their own with new growth, are very dear to
me, because I got the seeds from a tree that was being torn down.
What steps do you take to get your garden
ready every year? How do you plan out the garden?
I add compost and chicken manure throughout the year. Organic
fertilizers and bone-meal. Sow buckwheat for green manure in the fall and
spring. I don't really plan out the garden - I let it tell me what it wants
to do.
I feel so in touch with my garden, that I never really 'think' about
it, I just 'feel' what it seems to be telling me would be the right thing
to do. Last year, I built a 'river' out of big flat rocks that I had dug
up over the years and ended up putting strawberry plants between them. I
had no intention of doing this, it just kind of happened. This year, starting
in late May, I was picking beautiful huge strawberries from this year - the
big rocks seemed to warm them up early and protect them from slugs. I'm glad
I listened.
What advice do you have for those who want
to start gardening?
Start slow. Pick just one area you want to work on, not the whole
yard. Start with one tree, one you really like and build around it. Be flexible,
know that any gardening decision you make can be changed - those perennials
you plant this year might not work for you - but you can transplant them
next year to a more appropriate place. Get to a quiet place inside you and
listen to your garden, it can somehow tell you what to do. Find a really
good gardening 'encyclopedia' - this will become your bible. Use the net
- someone can always help you out if you've got a problem.
Do you ever garden with others? If so, how
does it impact your relationships?
Not usually anymore. When I was young, in my 20's, I worked in a
commercial vegetable garden where crews of us weeded, picked, sorted and
hauled. This was a very companionable type of activity, easy-going conversations
abounded. But I garden in relative solitude these days - no one in my family
is interested, and I'm just as glad.
It's my special thing, someplace where I can be alone and quiet
(no one ever volunteers to help me weed or water) and I like that. I do enjoy
my garden with others. Many friends come over specifically to relax in my
garden, to take from it divided plants, fruits and vegetables, to sit and
talk. People often tell me what a magical place it is. To think that 15 years
ago, it was just a big stretch of crab-grass and swamp maples makes me feel
very satisfied.
What are the joys of
gardening?
Solitude. Quiet. An escape from anxiety. A connection with the past
and the future - I often find shards of century-old pottery in my garden.
And I imagine what plants and trees that I have planted will look like 100
years from now. My mind can become very quiet when I garden, I can get to
a place where I am not so concerned with anything 'modern', just dirt, wind,
water - it's timeless.
What mistakes have you made with your
garden?
I'm not sure you can make a mistake with your garden, I mean every
'mistake' is a learning process, your plants are teaching you something,
and if you listen, then you are more connected to them. Oh sure, I've been
late spraying the horticultural oil on the apple trees, and had maggots come
harvest, but I can't call that a 'mistake', it's learning. Tell every new
gardener, they can't really make a mistake, there's nothing in a garden that
can't be changed, re-done, replanted, re-imagined.
Is gardening a spiritual endeavor for you?
If so, how?
Being outdoors and engaged with the earth is the only way I find
connection with the spiritual world. I find this sometimes when hiking or
canoeing, but frequently in the garden. A sense of inner peace and deep
contentment. A feeling that I am doing right. And a link to humanity and
the work of women both before me and after me.
What books, television programs, videos, magazines
have helped you learn about gardening?
I occasionally read Organic Gardening magazine at the library, I
have a few books that I use as references, and I occasionally watch a gardening
show on TV. I am mostly self-taught, but as I've said previously, the garden
itself has taught me more than anything else I've conferred with.
What challenges does your garden give
you?
I don't think of the garden as giving me challenges as much as I
do opportunities. It's like the garden is saying to me 'how can you help
me become more beautiful?' And I try to answer it.
My biggest failure was to fail to listen to two beautiful birches
- they ultimately died of birch borer, and I mourned them deeply. On some
level, I knew they were diseased the summer before the year they died, but
there was a lot of family stuff going on and I ignored those
feelings.
How do you handle insects and other animals
that might interfere with your garden?
I use diachomacious earth for slugs, horticultural oil for fruit
trees, and let the flowers do as well as they can. If they are susceptible
to insects, I tend to let them die out, and let other more hardy plants take
their place. I try to hand-pick beetles, etc, off of vegetables. I use beneficial
nematodes, lady bugs, etc to promote a healthy environment.
What have you discovered improves the quality
of your garden?
My vision, my patience and my ability to listen to my garden is
what improves it. I mean, on a practical level, I use a lot of shredded mulch
(get a truck-load delivered every year ), I have no grass, so that there
is no lawn-mower or chemical fertilizers polluting the garden. I use the
results of my vermiculture for both indoor and outdoor plants, and I compost
virtually everything I can get my hands on.
My raised beds are filled with much improved soil and I have
rain-barrels under all the gutters for watering. I use soaker hoses for drought
periods, I keep one in each bed and use a timer to make sure I don't forget
to turn off the hose. I keep a garden journal, making a notation in it at
least a few times a week as to what I've done, what's coming in, what's not
doing well. This has proved invaluable to me.
Does your garden have a theme? A name? Is
it symbolic of something?
My garden doesn't have a name, but it's theme is probably something
along the lines of a retreat, a place to take it slow, to look at the whole,
and then to focus on some of it's parts, a place to enjoy all the senses
- vision, hearing, smell, touch. It's a place to share, with people, with
hummingbirds and robins, with monarchs and bats and praying-mantis and
squirrels.
How much time do you spend on your garden
each day, or week, or month?
In the summers, about an hour a day, but much of that is just kind
of 'being' in it. In the late spring and early fall, maybe a couple hours
a week. The main reason I am moving to Florida is to be able to be outside
all year round. Not being able to be outside has a profound effect on me
- I lose energy, my creativity wanes in other areas, and I feel depressed,
gray.
What do you think about while you are
gardening?
Almost nothing., gardening is a very quiet place for me. I don't
think. I just try to feel. Feel what is going on. Try to get in touch with
everything, the plant, the worm, the bug. Is this a good place for you? Have
you got enough to eat? Are you going to hurt this thing? I guess I really
don't think much at all. I spend a lot of time feeling a sense of appreciation
and gratitude. I feel like one of the most fortunate people in the world
(although I am technically hovering around poverty level) when I am at peace
in my garden. |
