Early Spring[.] Sheep walk among the flowers, stepping on the garden plants. Sheep eat plants with fuzzy leaves,and most herbs in the wild garden. Mother Nature knows the passage of Beauty isn’t something to discover in the cracks of the sidewalks.

Original:

Cultivating Tranquility  (an excerpt)
written by Marty Ross for Country Gardens Magazine (hardcopy Early Spring 2017)

Sheep might seem like a threat to the dedicated gardener, but Bromley and Jobey actually help out on the farm, Cindy says. They take care of all the mowing and trimming, and their straw bedding and manure enrich the soil in the flower beds. They walk among the flowers, nibbling on weeds, without stepping on the garden plants. Sheep are selective eaters, Cindy says. They don’t eat plants with fuzzy leaves, they won’t touch the hydrangeas, and they don’t like most herbs. When she introduces a new plant in the garden she takes it over to the sheep. “They may take me by surprise and eat it,” she says, but if they don’t show any interest, she plants it in the garden.

Cindy describes the property as “a wild garden in a sense – a collaboration with nature – with a lot of faith that Mother Nature knows what she is doing.” She tolerates many plants such as purslane and dandelions that other people might think of as weeds. Cindy doesn’t view them that way. “I see their amazing medicine,” she says, “their persistence.” Over 20 years of living and working at Saturday Farm, Cindy has developed a deeply satisfying relationship with the garden. “You become a part of it,” she says, “and it is nurturing.”

Saturday Farm has taught Cindy valuable lessons about nature, the passage of time, and local lore. Beauty isn’t something you have to leave home to discover, she says. There it is, right outside your door, and maybe even in the cracks of the sidewalks.

Wow #2: turning 3 paragraphs into 3 sentences