But I have learned a lot about my connection to the land. The garden, contrarily, is that patch of earth where we seize control and take on its responsibilities. We enter the garden, quite consciously, as co-creators. In my garden, this human intervention is particularly forceful. In order to grow vegetables here, we must divert the Mimbres River into concrete ditches that channel the water into our fields.
Irrigation is an ancient art.
Thousands of years ago, the prehistoric Mimbreno Indians irrigated the same field where I plant squash today. Their garden, too, was a very human one, a human design temporarily imposed on the earth. I may not be a visitor in this garden. I can plant a seed and share in the miracle. But the miracle is still just that.