Slow Gardening

I became a slow gardener gradually.  Originally, I'd seen my gardens as a place to produce food, cut flowers, to start from seed, to weed, to prune, to harvest, to build support structures, paths, patios and for pot/tool storage space.  Always changing, always busy.  Always do-ing and not be-ing, as they say.

Takaragawa Onsen, Gunma Prefecture, japan visitor.com

Lately, I've come to appreciate my gardens as a source of contemplation, inspiration and soaking in, like a Japanese onsen.   To watch the birds.   It's where I want to be when I'm not in the wild.

If there is slow food, then it follows that I am a slow gardener.

The idea of slow gardening/low maintenance has been tugging at me for a while.  But there is one use I haven't found for the garden until now.

Claudette

"Claudette" was a birthday present, to myself. I bought her last summer on Craigslist from a lovely couple in my hometown, Eugene, OR. She came with the name and it's bad luck to change the name on a boat, so I figured it wouldn't be nice to do that to a trailer.

 I was so impressed with their refurbishment of this Aloha "canned ham" that I was just sure the details of where she would fit in to our future would come to me at an unspecified later date.At first I thought she was something to be stored until used, not unlike all the other things in the driveway--cars, lawnmowers, recycling bins, bikes, hoses, etc.  My poor neighbors! Where would Claudette fit in?

Could she be a useful addition to the garden when she's not on the road?  Could she become my "teahouse" where I go for contemplation and inspiration?

 So I'm putting two things together: garden+trailer. Will they be compatible? Can they complement each other? Do they even allow trailers in this oh-so-suburban city? The assumption is that they don't, because I've never seen them.

Well, they do allow them, but they must remain hidden at all times from the neighbors. Secreted away behind a tall fence like something shameful.  My idea is to talk to the neighbors as I'm developing Claudette's new garden home to figure out what is acceptable and what isn't. To mind how I go, and include them on the journey.

 I've already talked to Vlad from Moscow, my next-door neighbor to the east, who has given me his blessing: "it's your property, you do what you want." So join me on my journey as I play "hide the trailer", while what I really want to do is celebrate Claudette's presence in my life, both off the road and on. I'm hoping we all learn something along the way.