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We grabbed on to everything that new life had to offer

Every morning on my daily stroll through our gardens, it dawns on me what a lousy substitute for a God I make. At moments like that my only absolute reality is that I am not the inducement of anything growing, flowing, flying or dying in our little slice of paradise, no matter how strong my desire to take control of things and evoke beauty around us.

Things get unmanageable when life erupts exponentially, erasing the memory of the orderly blueprints I made for it when everything was still pristine. There are rules to live by as a gardener, of course, proceedings that have become like a second nature. There’s also a ton of information out there on how to increase veggie production and it does make a lot of sense to educate myself more in that area, considering the amount of work and time we put in.

But instead I find myself living in wonder, especially on days like today where you can feel the throttling heat moving in rapidly and my time outside will be limited. Just looking at the abundance of the Scarlet Runner Beans with their lavish bloom instantly takes me back to the two or three seeds they all descend from. I found them six years ago in a kitchen cabinet in the house we looked after at the time, when we just decided to extend our French adventure. We grabbed on to everything that new life had to offer, including managing their veggie garden that was the size of a soccer field.

There was a little note attached to the bean seeds, explaining they were a gift from someone from Nova Scotia (if I remember correctly) and displaying a passion for this bean variety, infectious by her words alone. I couldn’t not put them in the ground, although I was nervous about the success rate, not wanting to ruin such a precious gift. Little did I know about the zest for life of these little fellows! They have become a true staple in our own garden, for their winterly nutrition and their beauty.

So no, I am not God, not even at Les Pierres. But boy, do I love playing his lousy substitute. 

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Susan Harty
Susan Harty
4 years ago

Very impressed by your enterprise. It’s hard work to keep to a vision , keep doing it!

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