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I kept hearing the refrain to a favorite ELO tune running through my brain as I moved through the garden this morning. I was watering, trimming, pulling weeds, and very occasionally pausing to pull off my glove and snap a photo, but everywhere I saw wonder and beauty; ‘Strange magics.’
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There was the large green insect that popped up out of the stilt grass I was pulling, the same color as the weeds and with enormously long legs. He casually hopped away in search of a better place to hide.
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There was the huge black butterfly returning again and again to an enormous panicle of deep purple Buddliea. I was intently watering a clump of drooping perennials and so missed the shot, but still hold tightly to the memory of such fleeting beauty.
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Our garden is indeed a magical place in July. Inches of growth happens overnight. New plants crop up in unexpected places, and we are surrounded by an ever changing cast of lizards and bugs, swooping birds and invisible songsters.
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The sad and bedraggled Begonias we pulled out of the garage in mid-May have sprung back to life, re-clothed in fresh vibrant leaves and new flowers. Their resurrection always delights as these fragile looking plants prove their strength and resilience.
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I move slowly during these extended watering sessions, pot to pot, plant to plant. I’m always observing, tweaking, and nudging things along as the season unfolds.
One must be as ready to subtract and divide as one is to multiply or add something new. How else does one keep order in such a wild kingdom?
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And then there is the choice surprise, the beauty one has waited to enjoy for an entire year, since it last appeared.
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Perhaps there is the low burrr of a hummingbird’s wings, its movement barely seen on the periphery before it swoops up and over and away.
There is a new blossom just opening, or the flash of a goldfinch flying across the garden, or a blue lizard’s tail disappearing under vines or behind a pot.
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One must concentrate with quiet attention to see even a fraction of the action.
“… I get a strange magic
Oh, what a strange magic
Oh, it’s a strange magic
Got a strange magic
Got a strange magic … ”
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Jeff Lynne
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It is the jaded eye that we must open wide, to fully appreciate all that is happening in the garden. “Seek and you will find.”
But without the search, the knocking that opens doors of discovery, the ask for something unique and special from our time in the garden; we might miss the magic and lose the ripe opportunities this moment offers.
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Woodland Gnome 2018
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“And above all, watch with glittering eyes
the whole world around you
because the greatest secrets are always hidden
in the most unlikely places.
Those who don’t believe in magic
will never find it.”
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Roald Dahl
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Forest Garden 