the big beautiful mess

This past week’s garden project: advancing the side garden’s terracing.

Three years ago, this was a grass/weed covered slope. Daylilies from the old house, surprise lilies and blackberry lilies and glacier rocks from my in-laws’ farm. Pavers and concrete border stones. Adding in perennial and annual herbs, a ReStore arbor, no-dig fencing. A perfect old cracked birdbath.

The first round of terracing wasn’t serious enough, too much slope was left. Soil and mulch and stones and plants slowly slid down the yard. Round two starts, digging deeper, raising terraces level.

Pavers slide, border stones lean, fencing tilts. It’s a mess, but it’s our mess. It advances every year. We gain more garden, lose more grass. Moving in the right direction.

Barrier cloth will be a major backbone moving forward. Missouri is held together by invasive choking tendril-y things. The barrier cloth allows me to veneer the weedy yard with a thin layer of beautiful; a slip coat of gorgeous living joy. Building my garden, rebuilding the slip-ups. Doing without fear of mistake. Making our yard my biggest ongoing artwork yet.

Perhaps that isn’t *exactly* the essence of wabi-sabi, but it fits somewhere along side it in my head. A couple of patchwork queers, patching up their crooked old house, carving beauty and art out of the dirt on which it stands.

This is our wabi-sabi life.