The Woman in the Garden

​This is a short post, but I wanted to pop on here and share a little story about a gardener I’ve been observing for a while now. 

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A couple of weeks ago, the street I live on had four tornadoes come through in one day (my house was shaking, and in between worrying that my roof was going to fly off, I did idly wonder if this was finally my chance to meet the wicked witch of the west). Luckily, there wasn’t that much damage, except to one house. It was a house I never paid much attention to, given the fact that it’s almost entirely concealed by trees. It’s a nice house; as I understand it, it was built over 50 years ago, and during the storms, it seemed that all those trees were thrown on the house at once, putting two holes in the roof and a crack down the side. The trees were almost immediately removed, and this was how I discovered that a gardener had been hiding in plain sight. The woman who lives there has a small greenhouse attached to the side of her house, and an area just outside the trees is planted with a bunch of annuals. I don’t know what else she has planted around the property (I have no doubt that she planted all those trees), but I’ve been observing her on my walks for the last couple of weeks. Every day, she’s out there working in her yard. I’ve been told that she’s at least 83, and every day I walk by her house she’s been outside, raking leaves and clearing away branches (on the bright side, she has plenty of room to plant now that the sun can reach her front yard!). I can tell that this will be me when I’m that old, because there is always something to do in the garden (it’s one of the many good things about the hobby). Our work is never done; there’s always something to be planted, pruned or harvested. I look forward to seeing what she plants in the new space! 

Bio
Jarad is the co-administrator and writer for Sacred Chickens, attends college at MTSU, loves tea and coffee, and tries to spend every spare second reading. He recently developed an interest (some might say obsession) with gardening. Jarad is an English major with a concentration in literature.  Bless his heart!  Let's all light a candle for him and send him happy thoughts!

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