Kya Swallows waters plants in the sensory garden at the Montessori School in Chattanooga. Staff file photo.The memory of creating a garden lingers with me like the smell of a clean, sweet woman. The similarity is the earthiness of each.
I wrote about it in October 1997 in a letter to my dear friend, Cecil Null, the writer of the immortal classic “I’ve Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know,” which has been recorded over 100 times.
He was my faithful correspondent for 30 years. His notes shimmer throughout my journal notebooks like jewels of all kinds and colors.
I wrote to him, “My garden is about gone except for the winter things. Lots of lettuce, spinach and turnip greens. And the Cowhorn peppers just keep coming in.”
“Took down the okra plants yesterday. I have sat at my writing window many months now looking at two long rows of okra blooms on tall plants weaving in Tennessee breezes. This is the first year in my life I have had the mindfulness to notice how pretty okra blossoms are.”