Rilke in the Garden: The Pollen Path

In my early 20's I shared a bit of good news with my mother-in-law.  In her brief reply I learned a life lesson, to share my joy is to diminish it.  Within her reply, realization, there had always been others  taking pleasure in diminishing joy.
.
Worse than having an empty quiver, I had no quiver at all.  With that sharing I commenced, without awareness for years, building my quiver, and a delightful array of arrows.
.
Entering into garden making, for myself, became freedom.  Gardening is the working of mind & body, while the heart works in grace seemingly untended, yet wildly abundant.  Decades passed before the simplest epiphany of all, Life began in a garden.
.
One of the best arrows discovered?  To share my sorrow, with my garden, is to diminish it.  List of my best arrows could form a book, but that's not where I'm going today.  Found a bit of Rilke yesterday, "Sadness is life holding you in its hands and changing you."  More fully, "Loneliness is just space expanding around you.  Trust uncertainty.  Sadness is life holding you in its hands and changing you.  Make solitude your home."  


Pic, above, here.
.
Ah, uncertainty.  Trust uncertainty?  Moving from my garden of 3 decades, my best friend, replaced with the 'feeling' of uncertainty, yet my bow cutting thru uncharted waters without fear, knowing this chapter, Not Gardening, is a gift, and I must be in thanks, pay attention to its lessons.  Perhaps this new garden, around our ca. 1900 home, is holding me tighter than I could possibly know.  I will trust that.  An arrow, as a gift, from my 30 year garden.
.
Discovering more Rilke,
  "I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
.
Ironically, Beloved, frustrated, asked, "What are you doing?  Where are you headed?"  Told him. "I trust where I am going, and trusting how I get there."  Further detail, ineffable.  That went over well, pure confidence in my path with zero words.  Him thinking I'm cavalier, yet me beyond earnest, trusting G*d.  Perhaps a little Ovid, "Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop."  I am a resting field, knowing to veer, not trust, my beautiful crop will not ripen.  
.
In early January, 2001, I put German artist Wolfgang Laib into my journal, his "Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective" was touring USA.  He's well known for his beeswax corridors, and a photo of his 1997 beeswax corridor was included.  Ah, this must be the Pollen Path, Joseph Campbell spoke of with Bill Moyers.
.
From the Navajo Pollen Path, "Oh beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I am on the Pollen Path.  In the house of life I wander, On the pollen path."
.
"Mr. Laib sees salvation in what is most fragile and fugitive.", NYTimes, Amei Wallach.  More, "A growing number of scholars, critics, museums and foundations have been focusing on the relationship between artists and immanence in part to understand why they so often come into confilict with politicians and established religious institutions."

 
Pic, above, here.
.
Further, about doubt, from Rilke,
.
 "Your doubt may become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become critical. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perplexed and embarrassed perhaps, or perhaps rebellious. But don’t give in, insist on arguments and act this way, watchful and consistent, every single time, and the day will arrive when from a destroyer it will become one of your best workers — perhaps the cleverest of all that are building at your life."

 
Pic, above. here.
.
Whew.  That is a sharp pointed arrow for the quiver, feels like a dagger aimed inward, at times.  Don't be afraid, trust the Pollen Path.  An arrow well used, and greatly shared, since having its epiphany, "What would I do tomorrow if I were not afraid?"  Every solution before the question, fear based.  After asking the question, though fear remains, myriad answers arrive, none fear based.  Those answers are along the Pollen Path.  
.
Had zero clue, Not Gardening, would be a rich zone, merely thought it would be something to grin/bear.  Instead, the tiny amount of garden already here, several century old pecan trees are sprinkled as nurturing baguas.  Old souls, understanding the Pollen Path.  Their yield as dependent upon it as mine.
.
Garden & Be Well,   XO T
.
House & land renovations ahead of planting the first fruit tree, potager, pleasure garden, woodland walk, shrubbery, etc.  Thought this spring would be planting, now it seems fall.  I will trust that, endure, and pay close attention along the Pollen Path.  How precise G*d takes care in lessons for me.  Not Gardening is a chapter.

A New Trinity: With Grasses?

If you ask me, Do you like ornamental grasses?  Long pause.  Then a bit of internal rumination, Don't think I want to know this person.  My verbal response, Depends on how they're used.
.
This garden, below, creates a new trinity, its own world.  Nothing hodge-podge-lodge or dinky-is-stinky about these ornamental grasses.  More, hydrangeas and trees too ?  Cup runneth over.
.
Trees, hydrangeas & ornamental grasses.  Wicked.


Pic, above, here.
.
Exciting to see a 'new' garden.  I'm all in.
.
Interesting tree stakes.  Lots of wind.  Zero protection against deer.  Greatly protective.  I once lost a large sasanqua after transplanting.  Winds.  Rocked too often by wind, new roots continually ripped from the soil.  Loved that sansanqua.  Once dead, called my mentor Margaret Moseley, told her the story of my terrible deed against the sasanqua.  "Taaaaara, (in her great southern accent), I know exactly what happened.  When I move a plant like that I always place a few large rocks atop its roots."
.
Garden & Be Well,   XOT
.

Oil portrait, above, Margaret Moseley.
.
Margaret has been gone since 2015, she lived to 98 .  Miss her terribly.  She is a great story in my life, will tell it another day.  Many hours I walked her garden with her.  The stone bench she's seated upon, has a great history.  A pair of slave cabins, mostly rotted, not entirely, were near her property.  Small, both slave cabins had a fireplace with large hearth stone.  With permission, she moved both hearthstones into her garden for benches, using stones from their flues for legs.

Tell Me About the Foundation Plantings in Your Life

Moth to a flame, below, 1st time seeing this style 'landscaping' in England ca. 1988, during my 1st historic garden design study tour.  Skeletal DNA danced in its helix.
.
No drifts, no incurves, no outcurves, no tall-something-focal-point-expensive-tree at the left corner, no ubiquitous ridiculous superfluous foundation planting, no monoculture lawn parading as culture, no monthly mow-blow-go, no patch of hot house annuals grown from plugs and trucked to a box store, the 'safe' personality chosen and presented as character, no fertilizer killing earth worms and poisoning groundwater, no allowance for pollinators, just conforming to the highest point of the bell curve, because it's a point inculcated in secondary education as acceptable, when it should be considered a personal failure to reach that point.
.
A 'manor' house cannot be a 'subdivision' house.  Sometimes, a client is indeed in a subdivision, yet know they need to set their home free from the shackles of subdivision landscaping.  Great pleasure, releasing a manor house from its bindings of subdivision bell curve 'success'.          


Pic, above, here.
.
Garden, above, quite personal.  I want to know the story.  Notice the roller at the front door?  I get the feeling Somerset Maugham, and a few others are coming for cocktails & dinner this evening, above.
.
The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. W. Somerset Maugham
.
When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. W. Somerset Maugham
.
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
Somerset Maugham
.
The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. W. Somerset Maugham
.
Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. W. Somerset Maugham
.
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. Moliere
.
The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages. Cyrano de Bergerac
.
Sometimes in someone's gestures you can notice how a parent is somehow inhabiting that person without there being any awareness of that. Sometimes you can look at your hand and see your father. Sam Shepard
.
Personality is everything that's false in a human: everything that's been added on to him and contrived. Sam Shepard
.
All quotes, above, here. 
.
Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Garden Design: Life Happens in the Margins

The trinity that remains, below.  Noticed decades ago, what remains of a good garden.  Can you label the remnant layers?
.

Pic, above, here.
.
Open, wooded, stone focal point.
.
Pasture/meadow, woodland, stone focal point.
.
What I haven't known for decades, about that trinity, is its place in the hierarchy of Nature.  Had to serendipitously  learn its role.
.
Did you know there is a function of meadow next to woodland?
.
High density next to low density.
.
Do you know where this is leading?
.
 Maximum pollinator habitat.
.
All roads lead back to, Life happens in the margins.
.
No accidents.
.
With a garden, the trinity is literal.  Not psycho babble, life-happens-in-the-margins, about creating more space in your life for calm.  Don't understand?  Create & live in a historically designed garden.  You'll get the memo.  
.  
Garden & Be Well,   XOT

Creating Garden Rooms: Foyer & Entryways

There is so little here, below, yet it is a full narrative.  Better, it's a classic foyer and front door.  The stone table is full on serious, or whimsy.
.
Not your style?  Not your budget?  Evergreen hedge instead of adobe, gravel instead of stone, rescued 'something' for 'door'.
.
Ironically, this zone, below, is mostly missing-in-action, in the majority of landscapes.  It's not rare for me to work a jobsite with an existing garden, all I have to do is connect the existing dots.  How?  Design foyers, doorways and halls connecting existing garden rooms.  Choose a color trinity, a style 'theme' already indicated by the house/interior, and, what had been hodge-podge-lodge becomes a classic template having survived centuries.  This isn't rocket science.
.
Odd, this superpower, seeing garden rooms since earliest childhood.
.
Quite fun, for me, to be in a garden, with its owner, and exactly point out where the foyers, entryways, and hallways are.  Haven't lost anyone yet.  That moment when they 'see'.  Love those ineffable moments.


Pic, above, here.
.
Do you see your foyers, living rooms, hallways, entryways, in the garden?
.
Best way to describe the ineffable, below.


Pic, above, here.
.
Many things are outgrown, somehow, from childhood I kept this, above, the little girl at right.  She's totally absorbed, she's in the garden realm of eternity, no longer tied to Earth.  Not bound by time, hunger, getting bloodied/bruised are of no account, only being in that realm, real.  A stewardship with Nature, washing the servants feet, in gratitude.  A place to harvest grace, no matter the swirl in a life.
.
Man separated, quite recently, merely post WWII for USA, agriculture & horticulture.  Buzz words with new meanings have to be invented to maintain the bifurcation.  Eco, sustainable, regenerative, organic.  Industrial agriculture, and landscaping with a mow-blow-go contract.  Whew.
.
The role of animals/insects/fungi in Nature is fraught in man's stewardship.  I've been looking for something to add, to the prayer ahead of meals, about our stewardship, or at minimum, an awareness.
.
Found it, in the macro,
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals.  Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion.  We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves.  And therein do we err.  for the animal shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  they are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."  Henry Beston, 1888-1968, "The Outermost House".      
.
And another Beston, below,
.
"When the Pleiadese and the wind in the grass are no longer a part of the human spirit, a part of very flesh and bone, man becomes, as it were a kind of cosmic outlaw, having neither the completeness and integrity of the animal nor the birthright of a true humanity."

Front Yard: Simple, More Simple

Seems so simple, below.


Pic, above, here.

More simple, below.

 
Pic, above, here.
.
Austerity of great depth.
.
Richness in choosing 'no'.
.
A garden must say who you are from the curb.  A garden must say you really do want to come inside.
.
Amazing array of good choices, that list is not short, made for both houses & gardens.
.
How simple can you make your landscape while giving it, and your home, deep riches ?
.
Garden & Be Well,    XO T

Beautiful: Form & Function in an Orchard

Aside from the obvious, below, young fruit trees, do you know what you are looking at ?
.
For decades, I didn't.  Knew I loved the style, and copied.
.
Not merely pretty meadow, below, under the fruit trees.
.
We've truly been too long from the land not to know.  No sense whining about how things should be, genie is out of that bottle.  (Some have already labeled our era, "Anthropocene, adjective relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.", Google.)
.
So, the pretty meadows, below, are form and function.  Targeted mix of plants, feeding the soil & attracting a wide array of pollinators during a specific window of time, increasing yield.  Money.
.
Done correctly yields can be increased 80%.  Serious money.  More than money in yields, less time in labor.  More money.
.
You're looking at a guild.  That tall gorgeous meadowy tapestry under the fruit trees is called a guild.
.
Back to the anthropocene.  I do believe it to be true, yet pulling to the macro view I know Wendell Berry is speaking of a greater truth, and Earth will take care of our anthropocene era, " Whether we & our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals & decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do."    


Pic, above, here.
.
Guilds are a way of planting eternity in the moment.  Guilds are a small patch of wilderness, if you 'see'.  "Wilderness is beauty beyond thought.", John Muir.  "The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.", Carl Sagan.
.
Garden & Be Well,     XO T
.
A guild planting list, below, from here.


Article, below, from here, describing parts of a guild.  An exception, for me, to this list, below, I would use no human scat.

7 Parts of an Apple Tree Guild

• 12 COMMENTS

Guild, or companion, planting is one of the fundamental techniques of permaculture gardening. It taps into permaculture ideas such as self-sufficient systems, plants providing multiple functions, and maximizing the productivity of a plot. Guilds are typically set up around a central fruit tree. Each plant species in the ecosystem performs one or more functions that benefit others in the vicinity, as well as interacting with animal species and soil microorganisms to create an ecosystem. Below are examples of species that can be used to make an effective guild planting around an apple tree.

Apple Tree
At the centre of the guild stands an apple tree. In a permaculture design, it is preferable to get your fruit trees into then ground as soon as possible, as they can take several years to mature. For instance, if you plant a one-year-old specimen of a standard sized apple tree, you can expect to start harvesting in around five years. Dwarf varieties will take a little less time, producing their first harvest around year three. When planting an apple tree, make sure you add plenty of organic matter and, if possible, some animal manure. This will give the tree all the nutrients it needs to make a robust start in your plot. The addition of organic matter will help keep the soil well structured and so well drained, something apple trees prefer. Most apple trees do not self-pollinate, so for the trees to produce fruit, you need at least two specimens. They don’t necessarily have to be the same variety (you could get some interesting flavours by including different species on your site) but will require pollination between individuals to produce fruit. Golden Delicious and Granny Smith trees are renowned as good trees to pollinate with many other varieties, however, do a little research and find out which species of apple tree are native to your area. They will be best suited to the local conditions. The apple tree obviously provides the permaculture gardener with food, but also offers protection to the plants around it. They may need to be pruned to allow sunlight to reach the ground where the other plants in the guild are sited.

Suppressors
Plants that have bulbs are characterised by short stems and fleshy leaves, besides the underground bulb that acts as an energy store for when the plant is dormant. They are good additions to an apple tree guild as their shallow roots help to suppress grass growth. Grass would compete with the apple tree and the surrounding plants for nutrients, so keeping it at bay is essential for robust growth. The bulbed plants have the added bonus of going dormant in the summer, and so do not take valuable water away from the thirstier apple tree when rainfall is likely to be scarcer. A circle of bulbs should be planted underneath where the drip line of the apple tree will be when it is fully-grown. Alliums such as chives, leeks and garlic are good choices, but arguably the best plant for this role in the guild is the daffodil, because they have the additional benefit of deterring deer and rabbits as the animals find them poisonous.

Attractors
Attracting a variety of insects to the guild is beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, it helps to pollinate the plants (and so, in the case of the apple tree, producing fruit), while secondly, it prevents any one species of insect becoming a problem, as different species predate on one another. Dill, fennel and coriander plants are known to be particularly effective at attracting insects in an apple tree guild. (The apple tree itself will also attract birds to the guild, which will also help keep insect populations in check, as well as filling your permaculture site with beautiful birdsong.)

Repelers
Of course, besides attracting predators, the guild can also include plants that repel potentially damaging insects. In an apple tree guild, nasturtiums are the go-to species for this function. They seem to be particularly adept at keeping insects that may damage apples away. Indeed, many commercial apple orchards plant nasturtiums around the base of the trees to help protect their crops. Nasturtiums also provide colour to the guild, while their flowers are edible too.

Mulchers
Adding plants that naturally provide mulch to the guild will save the gardener time and energy. Utilizing species that you can slash the foliage of and leave on the ground to rot into the topsoil means the soil retains good structure, helping aeration and water percolation, and provides nutrients that all the plants in the guild can access. Comfrey, artichokes and rhubarb all work well in this regard in an apple tree guild.

Accumulators
The permaculture gardener can add species to the apple tree guild that will increase the nutrient content of the soil. Like the mulching plants, this lessens the need for manually adding nutrients (by composting, for instance) saving time and energy. Accumulators are plants that send roots deep down into the soil profile to bring up nutrients such as calcium, potassium and sulfur. These nutrients are used by the plant and by neighboring specimens as well. In an apple tree guild, planting yarrow, chicory or dandelion can perform this function.

Fixers
Besides the nutrients secured by the accumulators, it is a good idea to add plants that will up the amount of nitrogen in the soil. After water, nitrogen is the most important element to plants, as it is essential for key activities such as energy production and photosynthesis. Leguminous plants have special nodules on their roots that form a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria to help ‘fix’ nitrogen Clover, vetch, peas a, beans and alfalfa are all regarded as fine nitrogen-fixers.

Besides the plants in an apple tree guild, the permaculture gardener may also want to consider adding (or, at least, not removing) stones and logs in the vicinity. These can create habitat nooks that will attract animal species. A pond will do the same, attracting frogs, different bird species, and insects, which will add to the effect of keeping insect populations balanced and protect the fruits of your apple tree guild.

The sustainable living and permaculture design school trusted by 250,000+ students in 190+ countries around the planet.Use of This Website Constitutes Agreement to Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
(C) Copyright 2016 Regenerative Leadership Institute, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

As seen on