For a Three-Dollar Plant, Dig a Five-Dollar Hole

I've just come in from working in a community garden, the George Washington Bicentennial Garden, here in New Vernon, New Jersey. My back aches from leaning over to yank out those troublesome weeds and from fighting the dandelion fluff. My hands are a little tired from pruning back a lot of the dead wood in the cotoneaster which now looks sprightly and fresh hanging over the wall after the tough treatment.

Frequently when gardening I think of the parallels between garden work and writing. When you start a new garden you create a design or plan including the elements that are going to make the garden blossom well, just as in starting a book manuscript the author builds an outline. The gardener researches seed, plant material, its colors and growth height, type of sun/shade needs and other details in the garden design. The writer researches setting, designs plot lines, builds character profiles, and develops an outline.

After planning, the gardener prepares the all-important soil and digs the holes. An old New England saying of my father's is "When you plant a three-dollar plant, dig a five-dollar hole." Careful preparation pays off.

Then with the good luck of adequate sun and rain, the garden grows...and blooms. But it only continues to bloom well, as the manuscript in progress improves, with the hard work of weeding and pruning and revising - yanking out those troublesome weeds and the unnecessary parts of the plot or characters that were not moving the story, and pruning out the dead wood and cutting the fluff and deleting the extra scenes and verbiage that weighed down the text.

After digging that five-dollar hole, the gardener continues to fertilize and water the garden as the writer continues to polish her manuscript.