Testing Evolution: A Junior Gardeners Inquiry

I'm no green thumb. But the last 15 years I have learned a few tips and tricks from veteran gardeners. That said, the extent of my horticultural expertise ranges little farther than mixing in a little organic compost and fertilizer. Following that my job is done, save for keeping the weeds at bay. When I commit a plant into the ground I do so with blind faith that the plant possesses the will to survive. There's comfort in the fact that everything I've planted endured the first time I got my hands on them, so why not the second?

After five summers of thoughtfully tending and nurturing my gardens, they have finally come into their own. Gone are the bare patches that every season I cover with more plants. For the very first time, all things green and leafy are green and leafy. Flowers bloom and look like they did on the package in which I bought them. Sipping coffee, standing barefoot in the dewy grass I fondly recall the day I ripped up the first bit of sod to create my little piece of paradise. All this as I strategically set out to disassemble my work, perennial by perennial.

We're moving and as much as I hate to disturb the sacred space I've created with my own hands and the cooperation of some sun and rain, I can't bare to leave my plants behind. It feels wrong after all the time we've spent together and the attention I've given them, reciprocated by the joy they've given me through surviving and even blooming.

As I dig, a scene of devastation ensues. I rake and hoe dirt back and forth to fill the gaping holes left behind as I exhume rudbeckia and roses, lavender and lilies. The garden massacre has begun. They wilt in their new pots, stressed by the sun. I pace back and forth giving them water and wondering what else I can do after unceremoniously ripping them from the comfort of the only home they've ever known. I find solace that they've endured this long, passing round one of Darwin's survival of the fittest. I reflect on this time held theory and conclude that this experiment in excavation will be my own scientific inquiry into proving or disproving evolution. Survival of the species, at least in my garden, is between Darwin and Mother Nature.