[Garden Memories - VI]
One of the most euphoric spaces at my childhood home began as a fatal mistake. Never, I repeat, never build a house on a negative grade. There is no amount of trenching, reverse grading, or industrial drainage that will beat water in the long run. Water will always comply with the laws of gravity, eventually finding the lowest point. Humans—especially those that sit atop tractors—occasionally forget this fact.
Mom and Dad built our ranch house about 50 feet Northeast of the highest point on the front half of the property. After excavating the pad, pushing the excess material away from the foundation, building the home, and then landscaping the perimeter, a small vegetation covered crescent of land wrapped around the house like one of those neck rolls linebackers used to wear in the 1980’s. Except the roll was in the front and not the back.
Naturally, given the orientation, the landscaping, and the slope, the space between the neck roll and house remained wet year around. In heavy rain, water would pool in front of the house. If it wasn’t for steady efforts to divert water, and eventually the addition of a river rock buffer and a French drain, I’m sure our living room would have been an unwanted marsh in the winter. (Side note: Dad was an antlophobiac, I think, mostly because of this early building mistake.)
The slope that was a saturated sponge in the winter, was thick grass in the hot California summer. Ivy bordered the slope of grass while liquidambars distributed the smallest dappling of sun. On a 105 degree afternoon, the slope was a natural recliner equipped with a vegetative A/C system. It was always a near perfect shade oasis.
I think when we look at the mystics, we find a spirituality that is much more like this shade oasis than what you might find in church and books in the religion section at Amazon. Spirituality or religious devotion is not so much an antidote to the mistakes we’ve made; it’s not a metaphysical dozer that can come fix your slope and drainage problems. It’s quite the opposite, I think: it doesn’t “fix" but embraces the problems as they truly are, in all their consequences and ugliness. And yet, if it’s true, it will find pockets of beauty.
