Above: The Arcadian or Pastoral State, Oil on Canvas, a part of The Course of Empire Series, by Thomas Cole, 1836
According to Merriam Webster, the English word “garden” traces its origins back to the Old High German word “gart”, an enclosure or compound. This of course implies a place separated from the outside world. In a physical sense the separation may be in the form of a wall or fence, or it may be as simple as a clearing in the forest. Likewise, a separation might be achieved by a much more subtle demarcation, that held only in our mind. Our gardens start and stop where we say they do, and may not be evident to anyone else. Whatever form the garden may take, the outcome is a distinction of some sort from the greater, wilder, uncontrolled world outside.
Growing up within the city limits of a small semi-rural east Texas town, I saw the planned, tamed, and manicured yards of the town surrounded on all sides by a varied wilderness of forests and fields, a terrain crossed by rivers, bayous, and creeks. Interspersed between the controlled landscapes of town and the wilds of nature were the half-wild/half-kempt places… second growth pine forests, open areas of pasture, farm field, pond, and old homesteads once cleared for human habitation but long since abandoned. These are the places where the lines blur, and nature and the garden became one. In these half-way places where the animals of the forest are easily seen, observed and sometimes met first hand, a child might find an interesting insect, the occasional frog or snake, or other wild creature. Encouraged by adults (especially my grandparents on their property in the country) I spent many childhood days fishing, stalking rabbits, squirrels and even deer, watching songbirds and red tailed hawks, looking out for snakes while looking for wild flowers, dewberries, wild pecans and black walnuts and so much more. Learning that there are valuable things in the wild, and that value is not always material, but also in the beauty of the natural world. Learning that nature is an overarching universal garden, and understanding the garden is all around, if we are only willing to see it.