I’ve never been a gardener, but when I moved 8 months ago, my mom came out for my birthday and helped me plant a gorgeous garden. Purples and blues and pinks rioted in front of my house. I have to say I was a bit perplexed when I saw the result. It was beautiful, but foreign. These weren’t the colors I usually surrounded myself with.

And for a while I was meticulous about the garden. The watering, the weeding, sometimes just going outside to admire it. I fought to save plants in distress and glowed when people complemented the flowers.

But somewhere around August it all went horribly wrong. Carnivorous plants devoured the weaker, less ambitious ones. A potted plant died a long and arduous death and I didn’t replace it. I skipped a watering day here or there. Then came the vacation.

I went out of town for a couple of weeks. When I got back, despite my neighbors’ best efforts, my garden was a mess. My basil had grown into a tree, my roses were sagging, and my window box could only be described as brown. Since I got back, I’ve been avoiding eye contact with them all. Watering them only when the guilt got too much. I just couldn’t face the overgrown, weedy mess I’d made.

Then today, I filled up the watering cans, pulled out the scissors, and made my first stab. I started pulling off the dead leaves. One by one. Immediately things looked brighter, cleaner, and one of the leaves even started waving it thanks. Waving? I took a closer look.

A lovely, alien praying mantis was dangling from the rosebush. She maneuvered her stick-like legs, trying to find a better perch. I watched in awe. Something wonderful had chosen to make her home here. I had a guest in my overgrown jungle.

Right then I decided, I would fix the place up. Weed out the clover, haul back the petunias, and replace the dead plants. And this time, I would fill my garden with oranges and yellows. This time, it would look like me.

Sitting down at my computer this morning and opening my novel revision, I make the same decision. Time to prune and replant. And somewhere in this tangle of words, maybe I’ll find a surprise guest.

Posted in Nifty happenings, Revision, Writing

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Trackback from your own site.