To Save or Savor?

What shall I do in the garden today?

It’s May, so there is quote a lot to do in the garden. Weed, cut back, deadhead, trim, edge, mow, plant, and plant some more. There is no end to the choices of what I should do to save this garden from becoming a wilderness

But at the same time, there is much to admire and enjoy—to savor—like the ‘Bartzella’ peonies in bloom.

Their blooms are big and spectacular but also fleeting. I’m grateful the flowers don’t all open at the same time. While some buds are still swelling, the first bloom has already shattered and dropped all its petals. One certainly understands the words of Mrs. Edward Harding, a Lost Lady of Garden Writing, at this time of year.

“No garden can really be too small to hold a peony. Had I but four square feet of ground at my disposal, I would plant a peony in the centre and proceed to worship.” – Mrs. Edward (Alice) Harding

Mrs. Harding would definitely advise us to savor these peony blooms while we can.

But then, on the other hand, that peony did not plant itself, which reminds me of another quote:

 “A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.” — Ralph Lauren

And who knows that more than a gardener? (Well, of course, many others outside the garden know this, but moving on…)

There is all that work to do in the garden.

So shall we save or shall we savor?

That brings to mind an E. B. White quote that Dee and I used in a recent episode of The Gardenangelists podcast, which was really the first quote I thought about for this post.

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” – E. B. White

To save or savor? That’s the daily decision.

Today, after the garden got soaked by over one and a half inches of rain last night, I think this will be a day, or at least a morning, to savor, which I will do by taking a picture of the American wisteria in bloom and eating a handful of strawberries I picked this morning. (Sorry, no picture of the strawberries. I ate them before I thought to take a picture.)

What will you choose for today in your garden? Will you save it? Or savor it?

Or maybe a little of both?