Clare Leighton's FOUR HEDGES

At the bottom of the pile of old books appeared a couple of old gardening books, one British, one mid-40's American. Clare Leighton, British wood engraver (among other media), illustrated and wrote the first. To say it is a delight is mild. Titled FOUR HEDGES (printed in 1935), the recounting of the four seasons and associated 88 engravings reflect work or its results during each time period.

How about a look at her chronicle entry for June? Here in the middle of the country, the middle of our state, rain has blessed us rather steadily which makes it practically impossible to take up the tasks of mowing and weeding. The enjoyment of a good book pacifies, does it not? Here we go.

A little preparation - she gardens BIG. And, words and images are being used these w/o permission so beg forgiveness. (They appear all over the Internet - who's there to ask?)

The quote begins:

Darville brings us young cabbages and sprouts, savoys and broccolis. He plants them out between the lines of potatoes. He sells them to us by the quarter hundred. As I count them I see thirty of each variety and question him. He sems amazed at my ignorance.

"Why, didn't you know that we always sell plants in a long hundred? that's a hundred and twenty. So of course a quarter hundred is thirty."

I feel rebuked.

The large perennial bed is a blaze of colour; delphinium, lupin, anchusa, veronica, bloom with unusal intensity. The red and yellow gaillardias, a gift from Darville, flower madly, in Noel's eyes ruining the colour scheme of the entire bed. .. He wants to uproot the wretched gaillardias, but I tell him that it would be too unkind to Darville. So he picks off the flowers and gives them to Annie; but the more he does so, the stronger grows the plant and the more it blooms.

We have other undesirable creatures in this big bed. Unsown poppies are sprouting up everywhere. One is lenient towards flowering weeds in the first year or two of a new garden, glad of the colour of anything that blooms. One even declares that one is striking out against snobbishness in gardens and will find room for such beautiful things as scarlet poppies. And so, for a year or two, they do bloom. But, also, they seed. And we are paying for our soft-heartedness. From now on the wild scarlet poppy in our garden is doomed...We defended its beauty to people who condoled with us on the appearance of such a lusy weed in the middle of our best bed. We laughed...We have learned better."

Later she reports that the loveliest creature in the garden is the mullein caterpillar and includes a delicate carving. Leighton's curiosity leads her to take one inside, something she probably does to study not only for its habits but also for its beauty. It takes less than a week for the caterpillar to more than double in size and then engulf itself in a provided mullein leave which becomes the cocoon framework.

There. Are you tempted to enjoy what nature provides or to find some of the flowers mentioned herein? If it's raining where you are and you cannot go play outside in the dirt, escape with a great book by someone who did do just that and then took the time to re-tell the experiences. Just in these few paragraphs clarity reveals we face the same concerns and share the same joys, whether this side of the ocean or the other, whether this century or the last. If we can have such simple things in common is there any doubt we have many more likenesses?

Coming Soon in YOUR Neighborhood

Is it possible this is the time of the year to get your taxes filed? Sorry, it is. Better than this, it is preparation and planting time for most regions. We happen to be in the middle of Illinois which falls into region/zone 5. A friend in Oklahoma has already put in onion sets and potato seeds and jokingly said they’d be ready by Saturday. He’s got to be kidding. But then, another of our friends announced he dreamed he planted a new variety of tomatoes the other night. They were the 6 hour variety (from ground to table). Do these people think they have a chance of being believed?!

Patience IS a virtue. While you wait for a frost-free date to roll around you can be busy planning your veggie garden. Determine what vegetables you really like – list them. Then be realistic and decide which of all of these nutritious items you can and will care for as well as how you will harvest, what you’ll do with the plentiful crop, what it will take to maintain a healthy garden. Are you going to have a “Friends and Family” plan, with help being promised? Are you on your own, maybe doing container gardening? Will you be in combat with wildlife and how will you handle the invasion?

If you just cannot wait, go ahead and get the asparagus and broccoli into the ground. And, yes, the onion sets, tater tubers, and even cabbage can be put in now. So you CAN get your hands dirty! Most other plants need for you to wait until the soil is warmer. Get your calendar out for them.

You’ll just get the garden tools cleaned off and hung up on the pegboard and it will be time to put in seeds for lettuce, spinach, peas, and turnips. Then cauliflower, radishes, carrots and beets can go in – yes, before April 15th! After all the danger of frost is behind us you can plant tomatoes safely. Likewise sweet corn, summer squashes, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, peppers, and sweet potatoes.

Still, this is an only an overview – if you are experienced you probably have your own plan; if not, error on the side of doing too much research and too much planning before you plant – but remember, time is not going to stand still – for gardens or taxes.