OH, THE GARDENS WE'RE PLANTING...

The dictionary gives the definition of a seed as : The part of a flowering plant that typically contains the embryo with it's protective coat and stored food that will develop into a new plant when sown. It also goes on to give almost a third of a page of other definitions, all of which have to do with beginnings.

Last year I read about an archeological dig in the Middle East where a sealed ceramic container, found in a tomb, contained hundreds of seeds that were more than five thousand years old. Of course, scientists being who they are, some of those seeds were carefully removed from the container and, with the help of some good soil, sunlight and water, were germinated. They began to grow!

So my question, after reading about that, is WHAT IS A SEED? Think about it. I'll give you a few seconds to chew on that one.   hmmmmmmmm,hhhhhhhhhmm, hhmmmmm. (Humming while I wait) Ready to answer the question? WHAT IS A SEED? Couldn't really answer that one, could you?

It's as much a philosophical question as it is one of biology. If a seed is the beginning of a plant's life, how could it sit dormant for five thousand years? And how could it still be viable after all that time? Worth thinking about, isn't it?

You're wondering about the direction I'm going to take. It's seed catalog time. I have them stacked in the bathrooms, next to my bed, on top of the cedar chest we use as a coffee table in the living room. They're coming in the mail every day this time of year. I used to be a Master Gardener, so they have me pegged as a sucker for all things green and growing. And they're right too! I love to design gardens, formal or informal...to amend the soil, always organically. I love to smell the dirt, dig in it and destroy my hands with it. During the growing season my fingernails are nearly always dirty and my knuckles swollen with all the digging and pulling I do. Of course, the horses have become a part of that too. Every single time they poop when I'm standing there, I say "Thank you! And the gardens thank you too!" It really is a gift back to the earth when you compost horse poop and urine soaked bedding. My vegetable gardens were a jungle of plants last year with twelve foot high tomatoes!

I asked for seeds for Christmas this year...and got them too! I love those kinds of gifts. They're simple, affordable and they give all year long. I'll have my own seeds from the plants I put into the ground this year that I'll be able to plant or save them for next year. Now that's my idea of what Christmas and gift giving is all about. It all gets paid forward in the flowers,herbs and vegetables I pick and share with my neighbors (although the lady next door threatened to come out and shoot me with rock salt if I left her anymore zucchinis on her front porch, last Summer!)

I love the Winter part of gardening too. I get to lay the ground work for whatever I'm going to do the next year. This year I'm adding in a wild flower garden along the west side of our little arena because I'm tired of weed wacking along that side. It's the perfect place to plant wild flowers. Can't use the hill there for anything else except weeds, so flowers it is!

This morning, while I was out doing chores and playing "TAG" with my horses, I realized that's what I'm doing there too. I'm laying the ground work with them by learning more about how to BE HORSE. Lucky or Apache comes along and tags me and off we go, with me starting as a mirror to their movements and energy levels. It's a simple game. I started it when I decided I needed to break my own patterns of being predictable, so I changed up the morning routines starting last week and I've been trying something new every day. It's turned into an interesting experiment too. They have no idea what I'm going to do, right from the beginning of the morning. And, oh, the conversations we're having!

They don't know whether I'm going to walk around the shed and meet them at the big gate or come out the back door, walk up the little hill and climb the fence. They don't know whether I'm going to let them out the donkey gate, the big gate or the gate to the side of the barn...or even out through the barn stall! Some days I carry my carrot stick with me, some days I don't. Some days I have cookies in my pockets, some days I don't. It's just lots and lots of Friendly Game. All three of them are intrigued, waiting at the gate and calling to me. "What's it going to be today Ma?" I've become "consistently inconsistent", something I used to try to teach to my students when we were working on visual textures or patterns. I'd say "I want you all to be consistently inconsistent, to work with both hands, to experiment, to dance and have a conversation with your brushes and paint." See why I love PARELLI? Suits me to a T!

I get this kind of attention from my Right Brain Extrovert, Apache, who rarely misses an opportunity to play the game back. Look at that focus! And Lucky's right behind him too. They're both ready to GO!
And the BIG GATE to the OUTSIDE is open here too. They're choosing to stay with me, on the inside! HUGE!

That's a development I hadn't anticipated. OUTSIDE is a big deal to these guys. That field is big, one of our hay fields. During the Spring and Summer it's a lush ocean of grasses, 14 or 15 acres of it! And it's all on the OUTSIDE of the fence.

Before, I'd open the gate and they would walk out politely, touch my hand (all gates are entered and excited that way here. I've seen people get seriously hurt at gates.) and then they take off for the morning and I only get to see them as they canter or trot past while they're playing. Even in the Winter when it snows and the grass is covered, it's still OUTSIDE...on the other side of the BIG GATE. They don't usually come back until I whistle my three note ditty to them, calling them in for grain. And then the BIG GATE gets closed and the fun is over, from their point of view.

But this morning I gave them their grain with the BIG GATE open and I gave it to them first! "HUH?" This was Lucky's reaction. "But that's not how we do it! We go out, try to get into the barn (and sometimes succeed!), run, buck, roll, play and then you call us and we come in." Completely flummoxed Lucky. Look at that face! "What do you want to do Ma?"

I love the way this is going! They spent the whole morning exploring the opened gates...which are always opened...with new enthusiasm. All the barriers are down. And the conversations are getting more and more interesting!

And then we did this. And the best part of the running and bucking was when they came back to me, tagged me, and stood there thrumming with anticipation...waiting. I slipped and fell more than once, but out we went, running (well, OK, they were cantering and I was slipping, slogging, falling, and laughing) across their field, making patterns in the snow in big circles and zig zags.

We were laying the foundations for our Spring Gardens, preparing the seed beds, with our "earth work". I rolled and they rolled. I jumped up and they did too! We were, all of us, wet and snowy with more snow down our backs than under our feet.

I just can't wait to see what kinds of seeds we plant this Spring, what blooms and how many colors we have!

I am, ever yours, consistently inconsistent...Nancy, laughing at the gardens we plant when we least expect it!