We probably haven't stopped very often to consider that gardening is essentially a planning and working for the future. . . .what we plant and nurture today will be reaped somewhere down the road when the crop is harvested. And, after harvest time, we likely think about cover crops to preserve the topsoil and then possibly start the process of studying seed catalogs and other sources to discover what might be planted in the spring. 

 

But we don't always just consider our immediate garden plots. As we become more in tune with the seasons and the creatures that inhabit the fields and woods around us, we might begin to take an interest in such topics as ecological restoration, or biodiversity, etc. etc.

 

Even if we plan to just grow a few plants in our own small yard, we need to consider what is suitable for the site esthetically, practically. . . and neighbourly! There's a cute story in a book picked at random from our library shelves that tells the story of a fellow who decided to plant only native plants in his garden. The neighbours had a suspicion that he was planting nothing but weeds, so he got a lot of labels with Latin names on them and stuck one beside each plant (even though they didn't necessarily have any relation to the plants beside which they were placed) . The neighbours were impressed with the Latin, and that was the end of the negativity!

 

The book containing this story - and numerous others - is called "Tending the Earth - A Gardener's Manifesto." The back of the book has "an action alphabet," several pages of additional notes, and even a source list if readers want to delve deeper into some topic or other. The author, Lorraine Johnson, has written a number of gardening/plant books. If they all are as informative and well written as this one, we look forward to some more good reading one day soon!