Leonard Moorehead, the Urban Gardener: Garden Gratitude

Leonard Moorehead, the Urban Gardener: Garden Gratitude

Rich is the grateful heart. City gardens are motherlodes of natural blessings. Migrating flocks of birds pause in our urban islands of respite, nourishment and drink. Stark fruit trees, thick mulches, and random stakes mark perennials among the mulches. Raspberries are cut back, asters and chrysanthemums trimmed to six inches and mulched, each mother plant surrounded by fresh sprouts for spring. Fine for those with daylight on their side but what about the crowded calendar? The short days? Surely the garden is done despite a bag or 2 of tulips and grape hyacinths in the refrigerator’s vegetable drawer. Darkness prevails when we depart for work or home. Red brake lights and distracted drivers are sunrise and sunset.

Our urban plots are much more than abundant sources of fresh produce, herbs, flowers, fruits and berries. Each plot, container, or window sill is hope distilled. Longing for fresh life zeroes in on a geranium brought in for the window or perhaps grandmother’s African violet is the purple bloom in your day. Non-violent silent testimony resides in our gardens, deep rooted connections to our inner being is readily apparent. We share the harmony of Venus and Moon who rule the morning sky. Gravity grips our bodies, our beings defy captivity. Gardeners enjoy entrée to a peaceful world, our feet firmly grounded, our hearts beat, we understand fullness.

 Gardens are energetic for those who clear the mind and open the heart.  Vote for optimism and plant spring bulbs before frost hardens the ground. Crocus, tulips, daffodils, and a host of other spring blooms are on sale, pushed aside for holiday gifts. Buy more than you think you’ll need or enjoy. Reserve some for the vegetable crisper and store cold. Remove a few at a time and force bulbs into bloom later when snow and ice cover mulchy blankets.

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Mimic the busy squirrels and plant bulbs as soon as possible. Sunny margins of the garden shield bulbs from summer cultivation and heavy feet. Left undisturbed to return year after year, spring bulbs witness to our communion between one another towards a peaceful future. Tulips do not quarrel nor are they unkind. Their honesty is visible. Truth is upright without opinion. Daffodils are excellent companion plants. They are distasteful to squirrels and nocturnal skunks. Each bulb contains a galaxy of future bliss. Plant bottom or root side down, mere bud like tips upwards. A rule of thumb is 3x deep in comparison to the bulb’s size. A trowel’s depth or about 6 inches for tulips in rich humus will promote tulips from temporary annual into persistent colonies. Gently re-plant any found from former years. Kneel in the universal posture of prayer on handy burlap bags and separate smaller bulbs apart and replant. Rise and rising, lift up your hearts. Each crocus or garlic clove put in now is a promise.

Gardeners are realists. Disease, injury, or opportunity enforce accommodations. Do not despair. Gardening is never futile. Engage within your degree. Dear Nana kept her grandmother’s Christmas cactus given one holiday between wars. Nana lived far past the allotted three score and ten and took a moment between children and travesty to give the old cactus a meager drink and the pot a quarter turn. She gave to all a broken stem of the electric red cactus blooms. Easily rooted and happy to grow upon the merits of benign neglect, her Christmas cactus touches countless lives 50 years after her death. She believed in the merits of tea, the cure for every trouble, cream not lemon.  

After a quick disclaimer towards superstition Nana read the future in tea leaves before tucking them into the Christmas cactus pot. Love was her prediction, the Christmas cactus confirms her wisdom each year. Nearly sightless during her 90’s, she kept the cactus alive, visible to all and assured within, her victory garden in a majolica pot. Her prediction endures in the city of her childhood, one paved with cobblestones and local firehouses. Nana’s belief in progress was leavened by a sense of humor, “excited horses pulled fire engines to battle flames, their iron shoes drew sparks off the cobbles as they raced down the streets, dear. Were they excited to put out a fire or start one? Pity the fire engine’s drivers, consider the view.” Engage with puzzled children. Never overlook humor’s power nor contradict tea leaves.

There is a garden within every heart.  Share with others, help those who cannot. Tend your garden. Give it purpose, take from it happiness and receive the peace that passes all understanding. We are all gardeners, red brake lights, darkness and short days, cold or not. Illness, injury, troubles are among us, our days are limited. Do not forget the future’s promise within each. Through better or worse, our urban gardens are Eden here and now. Thanks is beyond worthy, rather it defines us. Wealth has as many forms as gardeners, rich is the grateful heart.

Leonard Moorehead is a life- long gardener. He practices organic-bio/dynamic gardening techniques in a side lot surrounded by city neighborhoods in Providence, RI. His adventures in composting, wood chips, manure, seaweed, hay and enormous amounts of leaves are minor distractions to the joy of cultivating the soil with flowers, herbs, vegetables, berries, and dwarf fruit tree.