Wisdom walking

The hikes were a great opportunity to examine other gardens in my hometown and make mental notes as to what I’d like to incorporate in my own.

Just as importantly however, the daily exercise made me feel good because I knew how much it was benefiting my mind and body.

Earlier this month, I supplied Sports Nova Scotia with some ‘streeters’, short interviews with eight people asking how they made out with last year’s New Year’s resolution. Six out of the eight told me they walked regularly and that for them, it was the best form of exercise.

A husband and wife in their seventies, both retired phys ed teachers, said they walked a minimum of a mile each day.

You can see a lot in an hour of walking. Masses of berried holly bushes planted around the entrance to one house provided the ultimate Christmas greeting. Calendulas were blooming powerfully in many gardens. Ducks were going bottoms-up in a small pond as they fed on the still abundant vegetation and there was the sound of water rushing and gurgling everywhere.

Thickets of Japanese knotweed, a bionic weed that’s capable of pushing through pavement, has a strange beauty this time of year, topped with twisted, russet coloured, filament-thin stems.

Gnarled barberry hedges planted generations ago were loaded with tiny red berries shaped like cinnamon hearts. Along the waterfront the rugosa roses were ending their season with enough fat rosehips to save a fleet of scurvied sailors. Each berry contains close to 50 mg of Vitamin C. I picked one of the cherry-tomato sized fruits, only now just beginning to wrinkle, and carefully nibbled around the fluffy seedheart inside.

Passing by a foundation planting I noticed flowering kale surrounded by snow-in summer (Cerastium tomentosum). The silver foliage complimented the mauve and magenta tones beautifully. This time of year, textures and subtle shade combinations from plants with staying power are what it’s all about.

A friend in Annapolis Royal shared observations from her walk the same week:

“Last single roses dance high on so many bushes - Topaze Jewel, Goldbusch, Graham Thomas - all shades of lovely yellows; a single, still fragrant, St. Cecelia… such a treat. Viola Labradorica spills deep blue violet elsewhere. There are still lovely colours of foliage in flowering shrubs and grasses to catch the eye.

“A patch of various bergenias, at last, begins to establish itself. Its shades of wines are stunning against the last foliage of the hypericum Albury Purple. Just lovely, lovely walking about. Needless to say even as the eye is delighted, the mind is busy, busy, rearranging, replanting, editing- making lists for later today, this weekend, year to come.�

And so another gardening year draws to a close, soon to sleep beneath a blanket of snow. Gardeners will be busy with Christmas for the next month, but then our minds will indeed turn to planning for 2007. Bring it on!

This week’s tips from Communities in Bloom are: “Gum Shoe Blues… aim for a bin, not the sidewalks!

Empty automobile ashtrays into the trash, not out your car window or in a parking lot.�