Pruning for Peace: A Cautionary Tale--by Bryan F.

Whenever I’m stressed out, for instance, while watching our democracy disintegrate, I usually seek solace by going outside to decompress. Sometimes it’s a walk or when I was young, a run or long bike ride. The best stress reducer for me though, then and now is tending plants and trees.

During my childhood, maybe when I was about ten years old my stress level went up significantly. I’m not willing to share the specific reasons for this but I began to discover that watering the yard by hand and making a little garden was therapeutic for me. 

Both my grandmothers loved plants and I learned from them how to take care of plants. My fraternal grandmother mostly had container gardens because she moved often. I helped her water and transplant them whenever I visited her. My maternal grandmother had stable housing and a huge back yard. She liked nothing better than to put out a garden every spring. I think she worked in the dirt for the same reasons as I did because she sometimes suffered extreme anxiety that is often present in empathic people. 

She always welcomed my help and even though her farm-bred body was capable, I often pushed the old rusted hand plow to loosen the mostly sandy soil. The soil composition was the result of the ancient river that once ran through that area, referred to as the Santa Ana. A dam in the mountains and extensive flood controls in the valley now holds back the water, leaving the area river free but fertile. I must remember to research and write about the 1936 flood that had my Dad trapped when he was only five on the second floor of a house not far from what would eventually be the location of my maternal Grandparent's home in Highland where we planted those gardens.

As I have already stated I am feeling a lot of stress right now and need some therapy. My trees are calling out to me to perform their annual pruning. I have spent a good deal of time studying them through the fall and now winter deciding how I want them to look after they leaf out. I’m thinking a closer pruning this year as I pruned lightly last year, causing me to have to do spring trimming. This causes fruit to be lost and of course, the leaves make it all heavier work not to mention that the trees don’t like it. So in the next week or so I’ll be into it, cutting and bundling the branches. This may seem like drudgery to some but it is healing for me.

Since I have been in the desert these last fifteen years I have tried vegetable gardening a few times. The summer heat creates a challenge and garden beds are out of the question just like most container planting that can dry out and shrivel a plant in one afternoon. I do have a whiskey barrel planter with a Honeysuckle bush in it, but I have to soak it daily in the summer; it survives because it’s drought-tolerant and the container is large. I do miss the vegetable gardens that grew so prolifically at my Grandma’s house in the valley below, though. I may try to put one out this year using some techniques I’ve learned through reading and trial and error. The other issue is the tending of the garden in the summer heat. Early mornings help but can be hot as well in August. I do have some tricks up my sleeve though, like planting on the east side of my home that shades during the hottest time of day. There is grass in this area that would need to be removed; not an easy task. I just have to decide how much I want it. 

Another thing about the desert is you can’t grow citrus in the ground; the winter temp will kill them. But you can do a lemon tree in a container, like one on wheels and roll it outside for spring through early fall. Dwarf of course, and like a bonsai the container will hold the size in check. How cool would it be to have a lemon tree for a holiday tree in my living room for the winter. The lights would be pretty and they hold their leaves year-round. The smell would be intoxicating. I really should consider this idea. 

At one time back in the mid to late 70’s, I had over fifty plants in my home when I lived on the coast in Belmont Shores, a neighborhood on the water in Long Beach, Ca. Most of them were various varieties of fern. Hung on the walls in planters and hanging from the ceiling my little 1930’s, post-earthquake studio apartment with wood shingles on the walls was a 1970’s sight to behold. A veritable jungle to traverse on the way to the bathroom. Of course, there was a Democrat, Jimmy Carter in the White House and California, where I lived had Jerry Brown in his first incarnation as governor. I think there is a correlation between fern health and Democrats in power. Please Vote Blue in November and help my plants thrive.

I’ve been too busy and then recovering from years of caregiving duties to ever get any indoor plants going since I’ve been in the desert. I think now with my nearly complete recovery and my duties behind me that I may have the time and energy to transform my home into the jungle that I crave. I have non-stop windows like I did in my little studio at the beach. I think the plants would do well and so would I.

Not unlike the pruning of my trees, the pruning of presidential power and the removal of the disease of corruption must now be done directly by the people to keep our democracy. This pruning must take place in early November for the desired results to take hold. The people must now take hold of their last powers and prune with their voice and vote or watch it all rot away. The proper tool, the Senate has been dulled by partisanship and criminal complicity and is no longer effective. The balance of powers that sustained our democracy is nearly gone. In the same way, I must prune my trees to control their spread we must all Vote Blue in November to control the tree that is the office of the president. The weeds in the Senate must also be plucked. Mounting authoritarianism and fascism will kill the roots of the grand tree of democracy, should we fail.

I’m now going to watch Being There, to get some gardening tips from Chance Gardener.  

(Extra credit: Look for the metaphors in the gardening details.)

Suggested Reading List:
https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062802187/fascism-a-warning/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/293163/it-cant-happen-here-by-sinclair-lewis/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/6125/the-handmaids-tale-by-margaret-atwood/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548475/requiem-for-the-american-dream-by-noam-chomsky-edited-by-peter-hutchison-kelly-nyks-and-jared-p-scott/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558051/on-tyranny-by-timothy-snyder/

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