The Way of a Gardener. Des Kennedy

      

      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

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

      stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

      without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from

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      Greystone Books

      An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.

      2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201

      Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7

      www.greystonebooks.com

      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

preface

one SANCTUARY

two THE NEW WORLD

three WHAT DRAGONS DEVOUR

four DIVINITY AND POETRY

       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

PREFACE

      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