Memorial Day on the garden calendar marks the time for planting annuals, filling pots and baskets, setting up barbecues and lawn chairs, watching parades, visiting cemeteries, showing the flag. Alas, not much of that this year.
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| Rhinebeck Memorial Day Parade 2019 |
We did not assemble as we had in the past. The corona virus death toll was reaching 100,000, falling heavily on communities of color, and we are still cautious. Reading the sobering front page of the New York Times, listing 1,000 of the dead with a single sentence about how they are remembered, occupied most of my Sunday.
On Monday, missing the parade, I kept the radio on all morning, listening to the songs of the wars. As a child during World War II patriotism was universal; we were all on the same side. It doesn’t seem that way now. I had my first garden then, in 1942, a Victory Garden, vegetables grown in the backyard to aid the war effort. Yet in the midst of this great pandemic we are a divided nation with the wearing of masks a subset of the culture wars. We won’t have a parade today in Rhinebeck, but I will stop at the cemetery to pay my respects to the veterans.
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| Curbside Garden In Rhinebeck |
Gardens may be a small consolation, but we must continue to cultivate them. Our local actions may be on the smallest possible scale, but at least we are doing something for more than just ourselves. We can continue to divide, propagate, and plant knowing that we have unfinished business in our gardens and our communities. They will both need help with the work that lies ahead.
As for my own garden, all the plants wintered over, struggling to survive indoors are now moved outside, re-potted, expected to leap forward. When I can get back to nurseries I plan to buy a few tropicals to add to the mix – cannas, bougainvillea, jacaranda – if I can find them. On an early venture I came across a stash of enkianthus, a favorite plant of mine, bought three out of greed and have no appropriate place for them. I’ll plant them out in big boxes against the back of the house and hope for the best.
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| Wintered-over Flowering Plants 2019 |
I’ve heard the nurseries are packed, some operating safely and efficiently, while others are careless, crowded and unmasked. Caveat emptor. I’m not quite ready to join the experiment, but I’m working up to it. In the meantime I’m gardening vigorously, with much resting in between. More resting than working.
I circle the block every day in the early evening, nodding hello to the neighborhood gardens, their gardeners, and other walkers out and about at the same time. My plan for a curbside garden disappeared as the village finished paving Livingston Street, filled the remaining disruptions with soil and set out grass seed, obliterating my prospective garden for this season. I’ve added a few photographs of curbside gardens, so as you walk around the village keep your sightlines low.
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| Another Curbside Garden in Rhinebeck |
Early this spring I ordered white cinquefoil which arrived bare-root while I was between gardeners. They were eventually planted and appear dead to everyone except me, who continues to water them, expectantly. Defeats are minor in the grand scheme of things. You will have noticed by now that gardens are impervious to everything except weather. Even neglect doesn’t matter in the long run; survival of the fittest prevails. An unfinished garden is one of the best guarantees of longevity.
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| Curbside Garden in Jerusalem |
