Praise for Uphams Corner's "Best Asian Gardener." Kim Song speaks
no English, but her fluency in "plant"
is outstanding. Devoted to her gardening, she is an everpresent spirit
making her presence felt every early morning throughout the Spring and
Summer and
Fall, tending her plants, flowers, bushes and arrangements.
Pleasant Street, number 39, is where she lives and from the outside,
you might not realize how extensive is her Asian style garden.
Seeing her every day - walking, bent over or hunched down low with bent
knees, carefully cultivating her prolific garden - transforms her from
stranger to friend. Always the same, patient, absorbed,
knowing something irrefutably spiritual that we, who are not intimate with with
the vegetation side of life, cannot know.
"Hi." She smiles demurely, her comfortable cloth hat protecting
her face from the sun. "May I see your garden?" More smiles
and she gestures "Come in."
"Oh, my! How breathtaking!" You cannot help but gasp at the sheer
numbers of growing things. Not one open space remains for another
flower pot. Lining all edges of the narrow side yard at ground
level, they also move up vertically, and the same for out front.
Ordinary
hedges fence in the front yard - easy to pass and not notice anything
in the race to get somewhere on time. Easy to not look inside and
catch the bejeweled, carefully designed, cultivated and manicured
arrangements.
What makes Kim Song's gardening stand out is her replication.
Think of a miniature garden created in a small pot, then multiply that
a thousand fold and there you have her creation and her love.
Photos taken August 2012
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Posted: November 12, 2012
Nancy J Conrad
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