Flowers feed the soul and provide quiet guidance

Signage is ubiquitous in New Minas, but one of the changeable ones caught my eye recently. It was outside Pretti Posies and read: flowers feed the soul.

The actual quote comes from a little poem by Sheikh Muslih-uddin Saadi Shirazi, who wrote in the 12th century. "If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,

And from thy slender store

Two loaves alone to thee are left,

Sell one and from the dole,

Buy Hyacinths to feed the soul."

The sentiment is the same and it made me reflect on my garden because this is already an interesting growing season. We’ve had lots of dry interspersed with downpours.

This year, for the first time since we planted our two cherry trees a dozen years ago, a crop that didn’t rot manifested itself like a gardening miracle. However, the strawberries weren’t great.

Farmers are held ransom to whatever the season and the weather throw at them. Remember last year’s hailstorm? Hanspeter Stutz at Domain de Grand Pre told me about a grape grower in a tricky microclimate in Nova Scotia who lost his entire crop one year. There is risk – especially for the professionals.

The risk factor (that I’ll kill whatever I’ve planted) makes me a philosophical gardener. I don’t bond with plant investments unless they survive and by then I’ve forgotten what they’re called.

Yet growing a garden every spring is so attractive. This year, for once, I managed to get sweet peas to bloom in some profusion. Got the seeds in at the end of April in a circle and now they make a colorful teepee.

I love the volunteers too, especially the glorious double annual poppies that look like Can-Can dancers. They are so un-Canadian. And I admire the 12-foot hollyhock that decided to grow so tall in the middle of a row of beans.

The Incredible Picnic that will celebrate local food and community spirit across the province Aug. 24 sounds like a good idea. The local picnic is set for Prescott House, the home of a famous apple variety.

Getting together to eat fresh, local food is a fine notion. But given the recent results of the GPI Atlantic study on the need to protect all Nova Scotia farmland, there’s an added incentive to make us value agriculture. The study pointed to our end of the Annapolis Valley as an at-risk area.

Last week, Beverly McClare of Tangled Garden in Grand-Pre and I were chatting about the picnic and we agreed it would be even more of an event if it was held right along Highway 1 with folding tables or blankets. They do that on the streets of France and raise a glass or two.

Speaking of growing seasons, McClare is picking gooseberry patches these days, followed by currants. Her jewel-like condiments are lovely – both to look at and taste – and now she is also creating unique liqueurs.

Take the time to walk around the spectacular wildflower labyrinth at Tangled Garden and give thanks for the fruitful, soul-expanding place we inhabit.