Gardening Against All Odds | Letter from the Editor

Do all gardeners secretly think they ’ve have it the worst ? For illustration , because I garden in New England , I feel like the glacial till ( aka unbelievably rocky land ) and massively irregular spring weather make my gardening more of a challenge than , say , that of gardener live in Seattle . But is that dependable ? Probably not .

Over the old age I ’ve heard draw of folk in horticulture refer to horticulture as an act of resistance . To me , that has always seemed to have a negative connotation;I wish to reckon about my hobby as an act of bring within the bounds of nature to make something beautiful and good . But after a late stretch of nine weeks without rainfall and the reaching of a vole ground forces on my garden ’s doorstep , I ’m come around to the whole idea of resistance — or more accurately , rebelliousness .

Perhaps that ’s why I fuck recitation theinterview with Susan Burke and Julie Jordin , who garden on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts . What could be more idyllic than create delectable layer and borders in that location ? Turns out that it ’s not so idyllic after all . Harsh farting , salt spray , storm erosion , herds of deer , and a cony population torn from the Page ofWatership Down ? No thanks . I ’ll take my late frosts and field mouse any day over that scenario .

Yet the landscape that Susan and Julie have craft is a seaside masterpiece , fulfil with frothy cottage - garden vibes . It would be beautiful no matter where it was situate , but the fact that it was created in a place so punish to plant is singular . This , my friends , is garden as an human action of resistivity . And I ’m here for it .

We ’re about to stigmatize the summer solstice , and I ’m search forwards to moving out from my “ act upon in the garden ” phase and into my “ enjoying the garden ” phase . Ninety - grade conditions makes mulch a dreadful labor , and I ’d much rather be sitting on the terrace and enjoying the view of my act of resistance instead of actively resisting . But just as I went to flip the shift into summer mode , I noticed some daylily with suspiciousdamage . The deer have proceed off into deep wooded expanse by now , and these nybble were aboveground , so I could n’t blame Vinny the vole or his cohorts . A day or two later I spy theperpetrator from my kitchen windowpane — a cony .

And where there ’s one , there are restrain to be more . We have n’t hitWatership Downlevels yet , but I ’m already craft an e-mail to Susan and Julie to get some mitigation advice — or at least a pep talk about the value of continuing to fend .

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