To the Little British Girl

on Gardener’s World who grew her first garden this year. Your tour of the garden was just what my tired and sad eyes needed this morning. Walking the garden in your pink wellies, you proudly showed the dahlias you grew from seed, the roses you rescued from black spot, tending them with care and fresh compost, the tomatoes (toe-mah-toes) and peppers bursting with life, and everything you declared as “lovely”. Little British girl, you are lovelier than the loveliest flower. Your delight is contagious and a reminder to observe the small things, to nurture the broken things, to share the beautiful things, when we can. Your corner wildflower patch feeds the bees and butterflies just as you, little girl, have fed me this morning. Stay wild, little girl. Stay safe in your lovely garden.

In her latest Substack post, Lisa Kennedy suggested the word “miniscule” as a writing prompt. The slideshow above is today’s “one small thing every day” made up of some photos of miniscule things from my garden over the years. I didn’t write anything new because the prompt made me think of this prose poem/flash mico I started in 2020 and finished in 2022 in a Kathy Fish Fast Flash Reunion workshop. During lockdown I watched Gardener’s World on BritBox obsessively. In case you don’t know, Monty Don is the host of this UK show and is much beloved by gardeners and plant lovers on both sides of the pond. During lockdown he began featuring home videos of viewers’ gardens to show how gardening was good for mental and physical health while everyone was confined. I was uplifted and delighted by her video and ended up writing about it. So, thanks to Kathy for the inspiration to finish this wee piece and I highly recommend her workshops. You can follow Kathy’s Substack, The Art of Flash Fiction, here.

My garden today is under snow! New Orleans is forecasted to get 4-6 inches and it is coming down hard and fast as I write this. Since I moved here in 1978 we’ve had four previous snows but nothing compared to the forecast for today. The city is shut down including all the interstate highways coming in. It should be interesting and it’s certainly pretty but, oh, I’m worried about my garden.