Having to live with problems in today's world--war in Europe and a lot of conflict between people in society--I would prescribe gardening for anyone who wants some inner peace and quiet. Go with your Inner Hermit, the eremite gardener, the almost-recluse, the walking in society but not of society... and a few birds along for the journey. Even a tiny garden, a few containers on a balcony, is escape from the world and an invitation to birds and insects to visit.
A large lawn is like a paved parking lot; it is better than a parking lot but not a lot better. I can see this everyday in my garden; a garden attracts a variety of insects, more insects every summer, and more birds every summer, a lawn doesn't attract anything. If this is important to you, or interests you, then plant more flowers or vegetables, plant a perennial garden; this way you'll be making a home for insects, birds, and urban wildlife that will never know you have made their habitat a better one for them, they will make use of your garden as they would anywhere else in the natural world. Also, you'll be making your environment a lot nicer for yourself and you'll also be doing a service to the insects, birds, and urban wildlife. One of the good things about nature is that it doesn't take long for it to return; the only ghosts in ghost towns are human ones, nature is quick to move in and make deserted towns their own. In the old days we all sang Joni Mitchell's song, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot", now we know that the parking lot didn't necessarily last long and paradise returned.
Photographs of my garden taken on July 7, 2022.
The next morning I took these photos:
Every evening, around 9 p.m., I go outside for a few minutes to see the fireflies, they won't be here for long. There seem to be more fireflies this year than last year or the year before. The first evening I saw fireflies this year it had been raining and I saw a firefly glowing on and off in the wet grass. I separated the blades of grass and the firefly walked onto my hand and then he was gone, off into the night.
These photographs were taken a few days ago, on June 24. Last week it poured rain but now it is bright and sunny, because of this the garden is thriving, it has taken on a life of its own. It is no longer "my" garden that I planned and planted, dug and hoed, but a garden that has an existence of its own. Now, it's just garden maintenance for me. Now, the garden is visited by more birds and insects than before; phlox is blooming purple and day lilies and cone flowers, hostas, lavender, and roses are beginning to flower. Even the little birds take the garden for granted as they come and sit in the bird bath. Every garden will benefit by having water in it, even just a bird bath; Sir William Temple writes,
In Every Garden four things are necessary to be provided for, Flowers, Fruit, Shade, and Water; and whoever lays out a Garden without all of these, must not pretend it in any Perfection. It ought to lie to the best Parts of the House, or to those of the Master's commonest use, so as to be but like one of the Rooms out of which you step into another.
--Sir William Temple, 1628-1699,
Upon the Gardens of Epicurus,
in The Oxford Book of English Prose (1925)
