St. Dorothy's Day

St. Dorothy lived in Caesarea in central Turkey, around the year 313 AD. She was tried for refusing to worship idols, and a mocking lawyer asked her to send him fruit from the garden of Paradise. In response to her prayer, an angel appeared and presented three roses and three apples.

"And then said the holy virgin with a glad semblant: Do to me what torment thou wilt, for I am all ready to suffer it for the love of my spouse Jesu Christ, in whose garden full of delices I have gathered roses, spices, and apples."

Because of this, she is the patron of gardeners. Also of brides, and brewers.

Agenda Today:
1. Garden journal queries
2. Garden visualization & plan
3. Apple Tree goodbye ceremony

4. Work outside!

1. Garden journal queries:

Most years St. Dorothy Day is when I begin to fantasize about changes in my garden, and this year we are making major changes in both the front and back yards, so I've been daydreaming for a while already.

Today I will visualize each of the "rooms" in our yard: My front yard sanctuary garden, our duck garden, our vegetable garden, and the family gathering lawn. I ask myself - 

How can I make my garden 

• a better sanctuary for my family, 
• more comfortable for friends, 
• a greater learning-experience for my grandson, 
• more mysterious and secluded, 
• more of a visual treat,
• more abundantly productive of food, 
• AND easier to keep up with?

2. Garden visualization & plan:

The winter garden is a blank canvas for visualizing colors, shapes and composition. Today I took a notebook outside, walked around my entire yard once, and examined it in a non-critical way. I wrote down these ideas:

• Front yard sanctuary garden with a warm courtyard, a wall to sit on, a table for tea parties, a tiny fountain, and shielding bushes and trees.
• Hummingbird garden - plant more flowers.
• Duck yard - Plant hardy bushes, put in bark paths, move the duck coop.
• Veggie beds with wide paths, and giant bean teepee for grandson.
• Plant a protective wall of tall flowers (sweet peas, foxglove, sunflowers, hollyhocks, mullein...) along the west and also the east fences.
• Water garden with rocks and Camus.

I will also get out my seed catalogs and notes from last year, and start to dream about which new plants to grow, and which beds to plant them in.

 

3. Apple Tree goodbye ceremony:

Tomorrow our beloved Grandmother Apple Tree will be removed, and today I need to say goodbye. She has been a faithful friend, providing us with abundant apples and applesauce, shade, a leafy bower for contemplation, beautiful apple blossoms for insects to drink from, a hangout and feeding ground for the birds and squirrels, and also an underground matrix of mutual nurturance that is a mystery to me.

She is old, has some rot, and is no longer producing, and we need to remove her to make sunlight available for new plants, but we have saved some scions that we hope to graft to create new incarnations.

Today I will spend some time up in her branches for the last time, and say these words:

“Dear Grandmother Apple (and also all other beings living in this tree: birds, animals, insects, spirits, and others), we respectfully inform you that due to your poor health, and taking into consideration the needs of the other parts of this yard, we will need to remove you tomorrow.

Mindful of your 30 plus years of life and grateful for the shelter and sustenance that you have selflessly provided to all, we wish your spirit to move on. We will leave some of your limbs here for insects and animals, and for the earth to reclaim, and we will root your scions and nurture them in the years ahead."

4. Work Outside:
My intentions this week are probably bigger than my time will allow, but I will at least step outside each day to do one small garden thing:

1 - Stake and measure garden bed spaces, and order boxes.

2 - Measure duck yard and order new fencing.

3 - Prune the roses.
4 - Fill my bird feeders.
5 - Rake Hawthorn leaves in front and move to paths.