Tonight, in the darkness, I was out turning the soil with my “Garden Weasel”.  “The Weasel” as seen in our shopping cart, chain drugstores, and on television.  Order before midnight tonight and receive a free 24 place setting of genuine, artificial stainless steel flatware.   Not only does “The Weasel” dig and cultivate, but also it slices and dices.  Only from Ronco!  Takes me back to my days of growing up next to the West Virginia State Fair.  Seriously, my Weasel is a very good tool, especially considering the condition of my beds due to years of store bought organic additives.  I do recommend “The Weasel” to the domestic gardener.  It’s a handy little tool, even without the knives and forks.

    Gee, did I say “domestic” gardener?  Truly, we are all domestic gardeners.  We can immerse ourselves in native gardening and natural design, but in the end no one gardens better than nature itself.  I guess the thought of spending next weekend with my brother, Jimmy, the science teacher brings to mind the miracles of nature.  I suppose the fact that Jimmy and I tried to kill each other during childhood explains why we are so close now.

    We are fortunate enough to have an aunt and uncle who live in the Goshen, Virginia area.  Their farm is in a valley between ridges, as is common in their region.  The particular area of Ramsey’s Draft in called “The Pastures” because the area has naturally occurring, open fields in existence when the European settlers went West in the in the 18th century.  I suppose this is due to all of the rocks in the ground.  Whenever I would plant fruit trees for my aunt and uncle, I would get 10 gallons of river rock out of a 5 gallon hole.  Okay, I have strayed.  So, what’s new?

    A few years ago, my brother and I were walking up a draft on this farm through a natural stand of hemlock.  Nothing unusual.  This hemlock stand is just the type of scene you would expect to find on a calendar or maybe a place where one might ask someone to marry them.  It is a massive grove of hemlocks about 100 feet tall with no foliage except on the tops of the trees.  A forest floor covered with conifer needles and limited undergrowth due to lack of sunlight.  A virtual monoculture (single species of hemlock) due to ideal conditions for this particular plant.  Of course, this forest floor is teeming with less conspicuous life beyond the hemlocks, but this is a whole different subject.  Jimmy told me to look upward and said, “Man, that’s a violent world up there.”  He was referring to the struggle for sunlight among the hemlocks.  He was absolutely correct.  This is a masterful form of gardening only nature can perform.

    In our business we see many points of view regarding the “correct” method of plant selection and design.  Truthfully, we are only fanning our own egos as we compete for what is right and wrong in our landscapes.  Additionally, as we have rearranged our soil and built our structures, we are flying into the face of nature prior to the first turn of “The Weasel”.  Generally, we have altered the environment that accommodates our natural flora to the point that we are now only pleasing ourselves.  Once we have reached this level, our opinions of “correct” planting are for our personal amusement only.  We are “keeping up with the Jones's”.  At best, we can be good stewards to the environment and we can restrain ourselves from force feeding our opinions upon others.  As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  If we accept the fact that we cannot assimilate nature then we can come to terms with our place in the universe.  Until next week...