January
2nd, 2015
It
is three hundred and sixty two days since Thom died.
Two
or so months since the Mourning Garden has deflated into brown stems, black
seedpods, bent plants, flattened grasses.
And
about one month since the multicolored lights went up on a maturing gold cone
juniper (Juniperus communis 'Gold Cone') that stands at the outside edge of the
garden.
 |
| The gold cone juniper at night with 100 lights. |
This
winter the columnar shrub was tall enough for decoration. It was the first
shrub I'd planted after moving to the cottage in Bushnellsville four years ago.
Evergreens anchor a garden. Bestow durable architecture throughout the year.
Structure.
 |
| The gold cone juniper at center. |
This
one was in direct line - axial symmetry - with the garden gate.
Arriving
in a three gallon container, the fledgling juniper - maybe eighteen inches in
height - was dwarfed for several summers by the anise hyssop, blue vervain and
mullein.
It's
origin was the Catskill Native Nursery in Kerhonkson, a nursery from which I frequently
source plants and the location of my first official date with Thom. He'd
tried to hide behind a grouping of seven-gallon apple trees at the gable end of
the nursery's hoophouse. Goofy but also wildly and personally romantic.
This
May on my first visit back to the nursery for the 2014 garden season, I was
unable to exit the truck for several minutes because I could not see, the tears
were coming so hard and fast. And unexpected. Once I felt sure enough the
deluge had receeded, I walked around, breathing in warmed soil and mists rising
off damp plants, admiring blooming shrubs like orange azaleas (Azalea 'Mandarin
Lights', Azalea 'Gilbatrar'), making mental notes of clients' gardens to find
these living beings homes.
The
spot where Thom had stood in 2009 waiting for me, now displayed six Regal
Prince columnar oaks (Quercus x. 'Regal Prince'). Instantly, I fell in love
with these trees -a cross between a native swamp white oak and an columnar
English oak - and decided that somewhere this year, I would find a place for
one of them.
And
I did. In October at a client's massive tiered garden in Chichester.
One
weekend in August, I hosted a small ice cream social at my home in honor of
Thom. Alison, his eldest daughter in Hawaii, mailed a package of sweets
for the party - chocolate covered macadamia nuts, Hawaiian honey, wafers. We
spooned ice cream from Lazy Crazy Acres Farm in Arkville and wandered around
the garden with my dogs, Bella and Ollie.
Enter
Ollie, the sweet senior beagle who in June hitched a ride up from Kentucky with
dedicated volunteers from the Humane Society of Bowling Green/Warren County. He
arrived weighing sixteen pounds, missing teeth and cowering at hand-claps and
raised arms but that day in August he was leading anyone who would pick up the
other end of his leash around the cottage, through the underbrush and into the
mud of the drainage rivulet that runs alongside the house. Thom was kind enough
to bequeath his rattling, roaring snores to Ollie so that I still have a
nightly reminder of him.
 |
| Ollie next to the burgundy and lime mesclun. |
By
August, the Mourning Garden had grown to include black Asiatic lilies,
strawberries, rhubarb, garlic, Queen Anne's Lace, sugar snap peas that ran up
mullein stalks, parsley intertwined with motherwort, several red cabbages
interplanted with black sweet potato vines, Anne ever-bearing golden
raspberries, a singular sprawling borage, lavender, echinacea, Love in a Mist,
black mondo grass, creeping thyme and culinary thyme, red fountain grass,
nasturtium, red petunias, 'Black Delight' viola, 'Palace Purple' huechera, 'Black Magic' colocasia, chocolate mint, valerian, 'Raspberry Wine' monarda, purple sage,
'Amistad' salvia, 'Dark Towers' penstemon, anise hyssop, vines of dark purple
clematis, morning glories - pink and heirloom Grandpa Ott's, giant red mustard,
dark brown Belle de Nuit gladiola, a large potted brown canna with a crimson
flower and a dark-leafed banana plant in a lime green pot.
 |
| Queen Anne's lace, scarlett runner bean vine, Belle de Nuit gladiala, raspberry wine monarda, motherwort |
Now,
the nearly three foot tall gold cone juniper is just perfect for carrying a
string of 100 multi-colored lights and illuminating the dark winter nights
until the sun will return and spring will arrive, beginning a new season in the
garden.
|
| The gold cone at night with 100 multi-colored lights. |
Even
last year, in the midst of remembrance and missing, in digging and planting a
special garden of mourning as tribute to a man I loved, I was looking forward
to a time of healing and joy. I included a singular white Casa Blanca lily
(Lillium oriental 'Casa Blanca').
Happy
New Year and God Bless.
