When all the plants are planted, and the gardener has retired, nature comes in and puts on the finishing touches. A cardinal flower may volunteer to mark a field of blue with an accent of crimson. Or a clump of spiky, upright grasses may arise, in seeming answer to the pendulous limbs of a weeping cherry. Nature can change the mood of a garden completely in just minutes. A sunny, cheery garden turns somber as gray clouds darken the sky.
Tall junipers sweep back and forth in the wind and rain, scrubbing the sky clean.
The cold of winter can bring on a deathlike state, plunging ice daggers into tender foliage and soft earth. All the busy green of summer vanishes like a dream. Life retracts into roots that become hidden and forgotten in the frozen soil. Nature operates the infinite interworkings of biological mechanisms in myriad forms, from gigantic to miniscule, intricate to simple, delicate to sturdy. And all of it is shot through with awareness.