P and I have officially become homeowners. The trouble of half-heartedly beginning a garden in a temporary home has left us. The fear of leaving a fledgling garden has faded. And now I've begun limitless and excessive dreaming of what can become of our little 40x75 foot back yard. Years of work, waiting, learning and disappointment lie ahead as I continually dream up landscapes, flowers and vegetables to populate our place on this earth.
In My Garden (Book), Jamaica Kincaid shares the hope, joy and despair that most gardeners feel as they go about creating their own little piece of paradise. My goal for this blog is to do the same. I plan to not only use this blog as a gardner's notebook -- recording the plans and progress of the cultivation of our small "land community" -- but to also extend the thoughts, questions and research I began in school with my work centering around sustainable agriculture, sense of place/space, environmental ethics, cultivation metaphors found in literature and everyday life, and questions of how we see the (un)natural world around us. My academic studies culminated in my Master's project of the same name, "Meditations on Cultivation." I plan to weave some of the same threads of thought through this blog, but with lighter use of Literature references and Literary Theory. And, it should be much more fun, lighthearted and blunt. Oh! And there will be pictures. Lucky for you, you won't be subject to my drawings. I wonder what Thoreau would have done if he had a digital camera? Would he even spend the time drawing all of the plants he saw on his walks? I'll stop there before I get out of hand with the diversions.
Now that I've laid all of that out there, don't be surprised if this blog morphs into something completely different. That's what most of my academic writing and studies did as I found different passions and ideas along the very long and winding road of discovery and "enlightenment" (I'm not talking 18th century "Age of Reason", so don't even go there). Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you learn as much as I do along the way and have many laughs at my expense.
Happy Spring and happy gardening!
