The Way of a Gardener
A LIFE’S JOURNEY
Des Kennedy
Copyright © 2010 by Des Kennedy
10 11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1
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Greystone Books
An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Kennedy, Des The way of a gardener : a life’s journey / Des Kennedy. ISBN 978-1-55365-417-9 1. Kennedy, Des. 2. Gardeners—British Columbia—Denman Island (Island)— Biography. 3. Authors, Canadian (English)—20th century—Biography. 4. Environmentalists—Canada—Biography. 5. Sustainable living. I. Title.
SB63.K45A3 2010 635.092 C2009-906846-X
Editing by Susan Folkins
Cover and text design by Heather Pringle
Cover photograph by Allan Mandell
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Printed on acid-free, FSC-certified paper that is forest friendly
(100% post-consumer recycled paper) and has been processed chlorine free
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support
of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council,
the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit,
and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing
Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.
ALSO BY DES KENNEDY
FICTION
The Garden Club Flame of Separation Climbing Patrick’s Mountain
NON-FICTION
Living Things We Love to Hate Crazy about Gardening An Ecology of Enchantment The Passionate Gardener
For my brothers, Ger, Brendan, and Vincent And most especially for Sandy
CONTENTS
five THE TAKING OF VOWS
six EXILE
seven THE WEST
eight REVELATIONS
nine HOMESTEADING
ten HOUSE BUILDING
eleven THE FATE OF THE EARTH
twelve DREAM GARDENS
thirteen WORDS
fourteen GROWING YOUR OWN
fifteen SILENCE AND SOUNDS
sixteen DWELLING PLACE OF THE GODS
seventeen REDEMPTION
acknowledgments
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
I would not change it.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
IAWAKEN TO A RESTLESS, MOVING darkness. A high wind is soughing through big conifer trees all around me. The roar is like that of ocean combers heard from a distance or the rumble of a slow-moving freight train. It is a wind from the southeast rummaging through the tree canopy. Slender culms of black bamboo rattle fretfully against the screening of the little summerhouse where my partner and I are lying. We sleep out here for as much of the year as weather allows, exposed to the movements and sounds of the night. Earlier I was awakened by the extravagant hooting of barred owls calling to one another through the woods. Raucous, haunting, antiphonal cries, back and forth, they’re as cryptic by night as the calls of ravens are by day. The oracular chorus completed, the soundscape is reclaimed by the rising wind and I drift back into uneasy sleep.
Later in the night there comes a sudden banging on the wooden steps leading up to our little sleeping chamber. Startled awake, I have an instant sense of attack, of danger. But then I make out, not ten feet away, the form of a deer, a small doe, frozen in fear. She must have struggled up the steps and now stands on the deck, unsure of her next move. The deer and I stare at one another in the pale moonlight, and when I hiss disapproval at her, she disappears in a single graceful bound from the deck to the lawn below. The moon is almost full, riding high above the treetops, fast-moving clouds streaming across it like a dancer’s veils. Mercury moonlight spills down through our little clearing, illuminating the house and gardens below. The scene is hopelessly romantic, evoking memories of moonlight shining on the landscapes of poems I loved as a boy. Then I sink again into the dream world.
In the pearl gray light of predawn, I pull back the down comforter and rise reluctantly from the warm bed, leaving Sandy to sleep a while longer. I dress quickly in shiveringly cold clothes and grope my way down broad wooden steps into the garden. The overnight deer has nibbled at the late blooms of Madame Isaac Pereire, a sumptuous