I have not tended my garden for nearly seven years. I always had good intentions…but life just kind of kept getting in the way. This year life has changed. I find myself with a bit of “extra time”, and so I have gone back to the garden. It was foresty seven years ago when I last paid attention to it. Now, after seven years of neglect it is like I have a small Mirkwood forest on my hands.

All summer long I have mowed and weed whacked. I have moved raised beds. I have pruned and even weeded the beds. I have brought in new soil and turned over old soil. I have divided plants that were crowding each other and pulled up others to give room for new growth.

Still the forest runs wild around me. And you can never tell what wildness might visit you on any given day.

This little guy stopped by for a visit one day last week along with a groundhog I startles out of the daisies. Yesterday as I met with a missionary in the prayer tent we were visited by curious squirrels and chipmunks a flock of grackles and two hummingbirds. A rabbit even stopped by to chew the clover near us.

The flower gardens are out of control. I can’t keep ahead of the deadheading. But their purpose os fulfilled as they attract the pollinators to the forest garden.

This wall of hydrangeas is chock full of bees everyday. The harvest is beginning to come in.

I picked and ate our first tomato today. I also picked our first egg plant. It was tiny but Kristine cut it up and put it in the rice with tonight’s supper. We have picked a gallon of raspberries. The blueberries are just coming in this week. I think I missed the currants, but I will check to see if there are any left tomorrow on my day off.

I am just beginning the journey of permaculture in my yard, but I sense I am going to learn many lessons along the road. The first: I don’t control the harvest. It comes when it wants. I must catch it when it comes.