Emily was a little annoyed with me yesterday. “You said you were on sabbatical and that meant you didn’t have to go to any meetings!” 

I explained that it was at a church, but I promised it wasn’t church business. I was at the monthly meeting of the Oakville Horticultural Society. I joined this winter in anticipation ofmy sabbatical. So far, I have met some nice people, seen a few great presentations and learned about the great community work being done by Oakville gardeners.

Last night, I heard about the preparations being made for the plant sale this Saturday at St. Paul’s United Church. They were in need of more plants, they said. Could anyone help?

Since it has so often been me doing the asking (nobody ever told me in seminary that I would have to do that so often) I wanted to help. After asking around, I found out about one of the designated ‘plant depots’ where I could pick up pots and soil.

It’s a small world, after all: the plant depot was the house next door to R, one of my elders, so it was easy to find. Marie was friendly and helpful (and of course she had beautiful gardens, too). She set me up and I set off for home to get digging.

Even with a lousy cold, I didn’t mind getting my hands dirty (could it be that gardening is therapeutic?). I went to a patch of soloman’s seal that had grown to engulf the gas meter and gingerly pried out several batches of shoots. I potted them up, four or five shoots to a pot, as I was instructed by my OHS friends. Then I noticed the red shoots of a peony that I really needed to dig up because after five years it hadn’t bloomed–I think I planted it too deep. And then I remembered that I had a stand of siberian iris that was ready to be divided…