Garden Tours and Hostessing

We let A LOT of people walk through our yard and I liked it.

Two weekends ago, we had the honor of our family garden being on the Tulsa Audubon Society Wildlife Garden Tour. Five private gardens were opened up to the public and people could walk through them, ask questions, even purchase native plants from local vendors.

I want to record here my heart’s feeling of complete bliss that came with hosting so many humans that weekend. Ryan took off the week before and we wrapped up our final projects including building one more new bed, hauling in new layers of mulch, getting more plants in the ground, and planting up pots to be extra beautiful. I made a poster Ryan called my “book report” which showed our progress over the years and also how the garden looks at various times in the seasons.

During the tour, we just stood in our garden and watched people walk through it. We got to see what they smiled and pointed at. We answered questions. I greeted a lot. I love greeting people. It reminded me of the old shop owning days. I had the thought that I was happy beyond measure knowing my only job was to be kind and help people feel cared for. And it struck me that I want to hold on to that generosity of spirit in all the parts of my life.

I also realized how full, satisfied and calm I felt after being immersed in that environment — in the garden all day for two days, my only aim to love. I want to remember that this healed my body of a lot of anxiety and heaviness that comes with my public school advocacy endeavors. Time spent developing a calm body and peaceful heart is not wasted and is essential. I don’t want to attend tense meetings about topics desperately important to our community and not be my best self—open, kind, able to take in nuance, able to access courage.

Thank you to the Audubon Society, to anyone who popped by, and to everyone who has poured into our family and our garden to make us who we are.

This is me at the outdoor loom I dreamt up and Ryan made for me. I strung it up and put out various yarns and leaves, along with a note welcoming garden tour attendees to sit and weave a bit. I kept joking that I was tricking people into making artwork for me, but really I wanted to somehow capture the beauty of many into one with a group art piece—to bottle up the energy of people who love gardens.

This is part of what we call “the crescent beds.” They are two crescent shapes facing one another. We grow veggies in them mostly! I have irises in the middle around the bird bath. We are trying to block out bunnies this year with fencing! Wish us luck.

Harriet tucked under the loom tripod reading. That is the newest bed behind her. It will take a bit to mature, but everything starts somewhere, right?