We have several gardens at our Little River, California home next to Mendocino Village-by-the-Sea: Our ‘Food Garden’, Dagma’s ‘Flower Garden’, ‘Anniversary Garden’ and the ‘Fairy Garden’. All of our garden spaces contain a fountain, one or more sitting areas, many different varieties of Japanese maples, fruit and flowering trees and bamboos, raised beds of vegetables, herbs and flowers and totems. All of which we planted by hand, removing the terrible clay soil and replacing with our composted soil…shovel by shovel, and wheelbarrow. All of the gardens are connected with soft, named, paths (The Path Less Taken, The Way of No Way, The Path to Enlightenment, etc.) made from wood chips and leaf-litter that wander, looking for little feet, through the woods. We carved our garden spaces out of a native forest of high pines, redwoods, Manzanita trees, and many varieties of rhododendron, some of which are hundreds of years old, when we moved in years ago…back when I was strong enough to sling a chain saw, down selected trees, cut the timber, and split the logs into firewood.

Creating our garden spaces was a priority while we managed our tomatofest.com heirloom tomato seed business from home. We devote much of our daily lives to maintaining our gardens –– to nourish our bodies and our souls –– to entertain and enliven us –– to intrigue and teach our grandchildren.

When I refer to our ‘garden portal’ I do so with a nod of respect to the definition of a portal as a gateway to another dimension discovered and/or opened through the performance of rituals where it is believed by some that individuals have mysteriously vanished into another realm.

Supposedly, ‘portals’ provide access to three different kinds realms: Earthen (encompasses Earth…the doorway to another realm and depends on the experience one wants), Astral (relating to the heavens) exudes ethereal energies and is thought to be the most powerful, less of place, more a feeling of joy and comfort), and Spiritual (Every human passes through this realm on their way to an afterlife. Depending on a person’s state of mind and lifestyle one can exist in the Earthen and Spiritual realms at the same time.) Further definition and application gets pretty complex and beyond me, so, I’ll leave it here and return to my interpretation as it pertains to our garden use.

The act of creating and tending to our gardens allow for us: a temporary transformation to a meditative place from the busyness of business; a meeting place for relaxation and rediscovering ourselves, or one another; a place of mystery and adventure, teaching and learning.

Everyday, we are in the garden. Most often, since there are many garden duties––watering all plants by hand––and devoting time to our chickens, Dagma and I may be working in different gardens on different parts of the property, until the end of the day when we shower up, make a tray of hors d’oeuvres, pour a glass of wine then meet back into the garden in one of our many sitting areas, to share with the other our respective accomplishments and discoveries.

For us, a garden can be a portal, an invitation, to a joyous place within ourselves, a reconnection with one another––an ongoing opportunity to revitalize our relationship as friends and lovers.

And then, there is the ‘Fairy Garden’ for our grandchildren’s tea ceremonies, conversations and explorations.