Working in the garden is one of my very favorite things to do, so while I appreciated the rain, I’m even happier to see sunny skies and warm days.

Today I took down our little greenhouse, which protected my succulents through the winter. Our official “last frost” date is April 15, but I just cannot imagine getting a frost in the next two weeks.

The coming of spring has been especially poignant for me this year. At the end of last year, when I had a dire prognosis and a lot of pain, I wasn’t sure I would see another spring. And here it is!

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Not a single room in the house had a door to the back yard, and all the windows facing the yard were two-foot-high windows that started five feet above the floor.

The idea of a picture window was not lost on the architect, but these windows all face the street. I’d do just the opposite!

Having recently moved into town after 22 years on a 5-acre property, surrounded by gardens and forest, it was more than a little shocking to find myself on a minimally landscaped city lot, in a house entirely cut off from the back yard.

Here’s what the master bedroom looked like:

Upon moving in, I felt an overwhelming need to cut a hole in the wall. This sliding door completely transformed the feeling of the house for me:

Now that we could get to the yard, the next challenge was to create a beautiful view. I guess people grow accustomed to living without one, but for me, it seemed incomprehensible.

Here’s what I faced outside my new door:

One thing led to another, and a couple months after moving in, we built a rock wall, and I started planting.

Having no interest in a lawn, but also not wanting to plant a large area, I sowed wildflower seeds in the biggest area. They’ve done wonderfully! The biggest problem is that they are just too dense, and thinning them is tedious. (Next time I’ll sow them more thinly.)

The wildflowers have been going strong for several months now.

I’m delighted to see this beautiful squirrel enjoying my rock wall, and I’d love to think that it was my urban wildland meadow that attracted him. But it wasn’t — it was the birdseed that spilled from the feeder.

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Working in my garden has been immensely helpful in preserving a semblance of sanity, and I’ve found myself pondering why it is so satisfying.

Creating things has always been a driving force in my life, whether it’s a book, a website, a computer program, a business, or a garden. There is a special quality to gardening, though, that feels very different from these other activities.

The big difference is that the garden does so much on its own. As the gardener, I don’t need to design the flowers, or understand their inner workings. For a few dollars, I can bring home a six-pack from the nursery with little plants that embody millennia of evolution. Only a basic understanding of the plant’s needs is required; the plants do all the "thinking" on their own and grow from little seedlings into spectacular creations.

With all of my other projects, virtually all of the creation process is up to me (and my colleagues, if a team is involved). Very little happens on its own. This is the big difference with gardening: it taps into the wonders of nature, and one needs only to guide it along. In a very real sense, the garden creates itself, and I am just the curator.

Gardening provides an unending stream of surprises, many of them pleasant ones. I could never design or create from basic components the flowers, fruits, and vegetables that plants so effortlessly produce. With some basic physical labor, a little tending, and a minimum of thinking, I get to enjoy these wondrous creations.

The world of the web, as much as I enjoy it, is an entirely man-made place. While it has many intriguing aspects and creating things on the web can be very satisfying, it can never provide the same sort of satisfaction as watching a garden grow.

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It’s been five months now since we moved. It’s great walking to work, walking to a restaurant or the market, and spending days without using my car.

Town vs. Country Living

The things that do and don’t bother me about living in town aren’t quite what I expected.

I hate noise, and I thought that the racket from cars and neighbors was going to drive me nuts. So far, it hasn’t—though we’ve mostly been in the windows-closed season.

I certainly don’t miss maintaining the well, filter system, storage tank, and septic system. Public utilities are a wonderful thing.

But Oh, the Views

One of the things I miss most about our old house is that every room had big windows with beautiful forest and garden views. I grew accustomed to this splendor and am still struggling with getting used to seeing fences, the street, and other houses instead of forest.

We also have a much smaller, simpler garden at our new house. After a bit of a rough start, I have come to enjoy the new garden.

We had perhaps half an acre of gardens at our country property, all of which we installed and redid more than once. We had koi, water lilies, lawns, fruit trees, and perennial borders. I miss the gardens, but I’m delighted not to be backflushing pond filters, maintaining a vast drip irrigation system, and being dependent on paid help just to minimally keep up with the garden’s needs.

I’ve also found that the smaller garden is easier to stay connected with and feels more personal.

Connecting the New House to the Garden

Our new house has a reasonably private backyard with a nice assortment of trees, as well as an extensive native plant border on the street side of the fence. The house itself, however, was entirely cut off from the yard—the only path to the yard was through the garage or down the driveway, and all the windows facing the yard were small.

One of the first things we did when moving in was to put a sliding door in the master bedroom, connecting it to the yard. It was transformative. The yard needed a lot of work, but it’s been fun to reshape and plant it this spring. And I once again have a nice view out the window, even if it’s not a forest.

Gardening in Public

The whole idea of having a front yard, and facing a street with people and cars going by and neighbors all around, is something of a shock. I’m still getting used to the fact that not every car that drives by is coming to our house.

A few weeks ago, I mowed the front lawn for the first time, and weeded some of the front garden. After all, I now have an image to maintain for the neighborhood!

Gardening in public feels odd, after 22 years of gardening in our totally private space.

It is not without its compensations. As people walk by, it becomes a social experience—something that could only have happened at our country property if someone was very seriously lost.

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