The Shrunken Garden

“My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful, the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles.”- Richard Diebenkorn (artist)

Going down from 12,000 sq m of wild mountainside to a 20sq m terrace (plus two balconies) has been a challenge to say the least (especially for the dog and cat).

Although its not what I would choose as a permanent habitat, I can certainly see some advantages in gardening in such a small space.

It combiness the benefits of defined parameters with the flexibility of everything being portable. Nothing gets neglected because I can see it all at a glance and its so easy to move something to a more suitable position if its scorching or freezing as the seasons change. No need for idle wondering about making a new lettuce bed in a different place…Just pick up the grow bag and move it and see if it works better where I put it than where I had it and if not, pick it up and put it back…It would have been an ideal way to learn about gardening instead of the school of hard knocks that was our former mountain home. Instead of learning by trial and error and having to wait until the waning moon or next year in order to transplant and/or try again, I could have really experimented and got to know the needs of my plants. (Actually, in the end, thats what I did do as water shortages and being left alone in charge of everything for a period of three of the hotter months along with a large dose of exasperation, led me to transplant a lot of my ailing veg to grow-bags and large pots on my terrace.)

Limitations in the garden allow us to fully focus on getting the best out of the plants we do have rather than wasting time idly dreaming about hypothetical plants that are still in the nursery or the seed packet on the shelf. One of the most flourishing ‘gardens’ I have ever seen is the patio-terrace of a city flat belonging to some friends of ours. Every corner flourishes with strawberries in tubs, tomatoes in hanging baskets, beans in bags…Bees alight on the flowers and birds on the trees in pots. And we humans spent many a happy summer afternoon at the large wooden table he had built out of discarded railway sleepers eating a large, healthy lunch.

Limitations in our lives, as in our garden - if treated as an opportunity rather than a constraint - can help us to learn to get the best out of every day and every circumstance.