I’m at loose ends after a three-movement symphony of gardening.  If it weren’t dark, I’d still be outside.  

My day began at the annual OSU fall plant sale.  Three days into their six-day sale, the OSU cupboards were almost bare.  But never fear — I came home with my share, with both pansies and snapdragons to plant.

Soon, very soon, I’ll be ready to plant the new beds at the duplex next door, what I’ve renamed Cinderella Two, since the duplex is no longer an ugly step-sister.  I like that Mr. Duplex Owner is interested in my progress.  He must be as tickled about his new garden as I am.  Thursday he asked the upstairs tenant whether I had planted yet.  She told him no, that I was STILL digging.   Today the downstairs tenant, finally realizing the full scope of my gardening intention, asked if I had expanded my horizons.  I assured him that I was only executing my original plan.  Perhaps he too is wondering WHEN the digging will stop.  Soon, very soon.  Maybe another day or two.  But if the downstairs tenant knew me better, he’d have known that I always dream big dreams. 

The second gardening movement sent Kara, Christi and I to the land of big garden dreams.  The season of home and garden tours is upon us and today the three of us enjoyed the Oklahoma Horticultural Society’s Garden Tour for Connoisseurs.  The gardens were inspiring, the weather gorgeous and the company grand, all of which explains why we only made it to three of the seven gardens.   But in our defense, the last garden we toured was spread across five acres.  That’s digging on a grand scale, folks, which puts my little project next door into its proper perspective.  

I came home from the tour to begin movement three, more digging at Cinderella Two.  As I kneeled in the garden to work, I keep company with God and other passersby.  Already I’m receiving nice feedback from my work.  From both quarters.  It’s funny that freshly dug dirt in a defined shape can be perceived so positively.  What comments will come later?  If my well-wishers think a bare bones garden is nice, wait until the plants arrive.  Then wait until next summer when the plants are in their full glory, and then wait another summer and another as they continue to grow to fill their space.

The downstair’s tenant told me today that he couldn’t WAIT to see the garden finished.  I just smiled and said — it’s gonna be gorgeous.  But his remark sent me to wonder:  what does a finished garden look like?  One garden on the tour today has been forty-seven years in the making.  That gardener could tell the downstairs tenant that a garden is never finished. 

Gardeners wait on their gardens just like a waitress waits on a table of customers.  Gardeners bring their gardens food and drink and keep it company and make sure everything is to its liking.  Then they wait.  They wait to see what will come from all their work of waiting.  They wait to see what tips and gifts the garden will leave behind.  And they wait to see what the garden will become.  And then the garden symphony begins all over again.  Wait, wait wait; wait ON it, wait FOR it to unfold, wait ON it….     

Today at the OSU plant sale, my granddaughter Karson asked for her own 4″ pot of pansies.  And her Aunt Kara bought them for her.  Wish I didn’t have to wait to see what this little plant will teach this little gardener of ours.