Stuck inside

I'm reading a book called "Dear Mr Jefferson" by Laura Simon. She imagines a correspondence with Thomas Jefferson about gardening. Although the letters only go one way (from Simon to Jefferson) I feel a connection, as the author does, between me and that earlier gardener. In one chapter she discusses the maps she makes of her planned garden and compares them to the ones that exist of the gardens at Monticello. I find myself exclaiming 'I do that too'. Then I discover that the three of us make maps and then change things around by the time we plant the garden. It feels as if all three of us are sitting around a dining room table, or perhaps being shown round the kitchen gardens at Monticello, comparing notes. I much prefer my history in this context. I know world shaking events are happening in the US but Thomas Jefferson finds his garden worthy of constant attention. I like to think that he could find relaxation and escape from the world's problems by digging, planning, harvesting and watching the seasons go by, I know it works for me.

How strange to be able to feel I can communicate with a man who lived two hundred years ago and feel that I could understand his, dare I call it an obsession with gardening. I do this through a third party, the author Laura Simons. It puts gardening in a different context, a historical continuum, an access to knowledge by a man known for his ability to view any problem through a unique and well thought out personal point of view. I come away from this book feeling as if I'm part of a stream of knowledge, of experience that can always speak to people, past present and future. For some reason that I'm not able to identify I find that a very comforting thought.

As I sit here watching my garden through a haze of allergies, longing to be out there but only too aware of the effects, I read every garden book I can lay my hands on. Another book that I read recently is "Water-Wise Gardening" by Thomas Christopher. The author has spent time in Austin as well as San Diego and several other locations. My favorite section is the gardener in San Diego who lives in his garden. He has a garden shower, he cooks in his garden and sleeps there. He has one room with a roof and walls which contains his books and computer, otherwise all activities take place in the garden. I love to muse on this idea knowing that I'll never be able to do it in Austin's brutal summers, savage downpours and myriads of biting bugs, but I can dream and isn't that what gardening mostly consists of?