Gone, the Garden

Oh, it's still there, the form, the texture, the architecture. There is colour too, of a sort. But the blaze of glory that was the summer garden, the warmth and beauty of the serene surrounding of the house where we live is gone for this year of 2006. Throughout the sere late fall and white winter there will be other scenes to take our breath away, but these are nature's special surprises, we have no hand in their creation.

We've put our garden to bed. Cut back the perennials, raked up the leaves from our trees. Out came the annuals. In with the spring bulbs which we will handily forget over winter and greet with surprise come the spring of 2007. If I hadn't made neat garden notes to remind me of the steps and processes and aspirational longings for the spring I would not at all recall what I'd planted.

We emptied the garden pots of their soil and they have been safely stored away for the winter. Including those hosting hostas which will grow again in the coming growing season. Oh yes, I've planted tulip bulbs in some of the heavy urns that we cover for winter protection and they too will surprise us in the spring with their colourful offerings we'll have forgotten to anticipate until their tender green spears begin to tentatively seek the sun.

The birdbath/fountain has been disassembled, and sits now in a corner of the garage, to be restored to its former place in the spring. Demeter sits in a corner of the garden still, mourning her daughter; she will continue to act the sentinel over the winter garden and each time we look out the dining room windows we will see her patiently on guard.

The roses have been cut back and mounded, and so have I done also with the tree peonies. We have yet to place winter blankets on the rhododendrons, the tree peonies, the magnolia, azalea, holly, the yews. Nor have we yet placed netting around the ornamental cedars to ensure that snow and ice won't deform them by their winter-heavy weight. The rose cones await their placement.

To look at the garden now is to mourn the fleet passage of time.