It Only Took A Decade

To get three stinking Amorphophallus blooms from a single tiny pilfered pea sized bulb. Ten years later they are about to stink and there are five pots packed with bulbs.

Ten years. My garden is ten years old. That is half the amount of time I lived on the island of Maui.

In that time the 'aina has been transformed.

Give me land and I will garden.

Coming here, there was a shift. I knew from the beginning that in this place, nature and I could only exist as equal partners.

Then something extraordinary happened. An act of horticulture was committed on two acres of forest and wild meadow. A maintenance gardener has planted and curated the wild.

The results are showing.

The six remaining Hesperaloe parviflora have settled in and begun to grow after their second winter. This is how it happens. I make good faith suggestions. If they are accepted into the wild with the help of some elbow room, they grow to become a functioning part of the garden.

There is all kinds of functioning happening in the garden now after many years of growth and a steady regimen of editing.

All while the Tall Flower Meadow that belongs here grows on.

Space is carved out of the wild. Sit. Relax. The only sound you will hear is Quiet and happy birds singing in the forest.

My garden is ten years old and it is amazing.