SPRING PLANTING AND ALL THE PROPHETIC ATTACHMENTS OF STARTING ALL OVER

Suzanne and I have been working outdoors, here at Birch Hollow, planting new shrubs and annuals, amidst the natural ferns and wildflowers that arrive in bloom here each June. The lilacs were late blooming this year but as always, it's worth the wait. The old urban homestead looks so out of place, here in the suburbs of our town. We are very much rustic thinkers and if it wasn't for all the attachments of business, we would never have settled on the urban landscape. We surrendered to convenience.

We decided that, as much as possible, we would make the property work for us……as if it didn't inspire us, then it would serve little other purpose than a place to hang our hats and basic shelter. Since 1989 we have done our own thing, much to the neighbor's chagrin. We don't have a subdivision ruler, to show us when the grass is too long. We don't hire weed control folks to batter the landscape with chemicals, and we don't own a power mower, blower, or whacker. I have a push mower and a kind of scythe downsized for a small lawn and shorter grass. The dandelion police look at us with disdain, and we give them the "thumb" up sign, to let them know their objection has been registered.

Now don't think for a moment we don't care about our property. We just don't over-maintain out of boredom. We want enough grass to catch and reflect the morning dew. We want enough diversification of plants and shrubs, to reflect the nature of our region. We have raspberries and lilacs from many different locations in Muskoka, primarily Windermere, on Lake Rosseau, where we once had a family homestead and a Lake Rosseau cottage. Suzanne can see plants that her mother used to nurture, and see the lilac arch that she knew of her aunt's home in Ufford…..part of the original Shea homestead from the late 1800's. There are hundreds of plants and shrubs that were brought to our Birch Hollow property, because they reminded both of us, of what we experienced and enjoyed of those ancestral gardens…..Suzanne in Windermere, and myself in Bracebridge. We won't win any gardening awards because it is a hodgepodge of quirks and whims and fancies. I'm sure the local gardening experts pass our place and wish we'd simply surrender to decorative stone, versus trying to grow anything ourselves.

Suzanne and I are both historians. We have an historic property. Not because it is an old place…….but because it is a composite property possessing many of the landscape values we adore, vestiges of places we once lived, and memories we are reverent of, for what they give us each day…..when we poke our heads out the door, and see and smell the magnificent lilac blooms, and see the contrasts of flowers and leafy canopy, holding the silvery morning dew. Suzanne, a knitter of considerable accomplishment, will sit out on the deck, overlooking what we call "Fern Hollow," and create her hats, mitts, gloves and the occasional sweater. I will sit in my office, with window open, absorbing this splendid view, enjoying the cool air penetrating this inner sanctum. We will both enjoy this place for what it doesn't have. And celebrate it rigorously for what it does have…..and while it is always confusing to our neighbors here, I think they're getting used to the artsy-fartsy old hippies living next door.

We never stop the mission to add more local plants and wildflowers, specifically, to the mix here at Birch Hollow. We might find an interesting flower at roadside, or on a countryside stroll, that simply must come home with us. We will undoubtedly attend a church or farmside sale, one day soon, that will offer up some plants with a little provenance attached. We like those the most. Being able to quilt together a plant culture, from family gardens all over our district. Getting plants from an old homestead, long over-grown, is still our greatest passion. They mean something to us, as historians, and we are grateful and respectful of all these yearly additions. It does make us feel better to live here, amongst the plenty of the hinterland. Suzanne is inspired to knit because of the surroundings, and I am never at a loss for words, looking out on to this small but thriving garden property.

We don't conform. Never have. At least not when it comes to planting according to Hoyle, or the horsepower we are required to have in lawn maintenance equipment. We just shake our heads back at those who shake their heads at us. Live and let live, we say.