Matthew Lyle Landsman

A fall garden gives thanks…till after the dark spell.

There comes an autumn night when the first dew descends and blesses the petals, leaves, blades and shrub. From the day last spring you gave fresh life to the soil with your nurturing hands, all of these have waited for a fall day to thank you for your touch, the quiet songs you sing as you tend, weed, and do the things to bring life and beauty to this corner lot of town growing old.

A show of thanks to the gardener…

From a day in early April that first saw life given you…annual volunteers and nursery flats have all known of your love…the love you give and absorb in return from shoot and stem, infant leaves still pale and taut in wait of warmer afternoons. And the feel of joy from bud and blossoms for the touch and tending from knowing hands, still lingers on in September.

Therapy by Mother Nature…

And just as you had waited for brighter noons and longer days, in quiet anticipation of the unfurling and uncurling of leaf and bloom, now the seasoned plants there can feel one last gratuitous standing ovation for you before slumber and decay coincide with warmer socks, a sweater, and brisker walks for the gardener and her friend.

For nearly six months, she has had her regular therapy gleaned from soil and sun, breeze, and fresh air there among the beds and bushes, bulbs and long stems. Convening with nature, in solitude among the crowds of flowers and songbirds, dragonflies, honey bees, and ladybugs. So even out here on her own, the gardener is never truly alone.

A place for tools to rest till spring…

Come October, even the heartier plants have to succumb under urges to yawn and slip into slumber…And the gloves and tools, save the leaf rakes, will find a place in a dark shed, a corner to lean against, or a drawer to nestle in. And there will be a solemn rolling up of hoses and draining of the ancient pump there next to the driveway under a mantle of trees. The canal will be let to run dry as the winter wheat takes root and the grape crush hopes it’s a good year and finds itself a place behind a coveted label…

The way to home in October

Life doesn’t end with the hibernation of the gardens in the lot there on Cascade Street, but the earth does rest, collect winter waters, and spent leaves that cascade back to the life giving ground in a layer of thanks.

And the gardener will tend to the stuff of the cooler and cold dark months. She will be grateful for the rest of the knees, back, and hands. And she will remember the first bloom, and the early morning autumn dew there on the leaves…the strands of gossamer giving flight to the spider after duty there is through…

Nature’s artisans…spiders and morning dew.

And she will remember how time spent with sunshine, water, and earth fed her soul for another year…and will sustain her till the dark months once more give way to the melt and lengthening of days…Matthew Landsman