Even more than a compost bin, all gardeners need a garden song..one that runs happily around inside themselves...opening windows and doors..and, in time even taking the walls down and the roof off...Such a song, once found, does for the heart what thunder, rain and sun do for the garden..Gardening, after all, is about intimacy...an affair of the heart, and the heart needs tending...this is one of mine, courtesy of D.Mallett and Noel Paul Stookey...

Garden Song
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
Till the rains come tumbling down

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
Man is made of dreams and bones
I feel the need to grow my own
Cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
I'll find my way in nature's chain
Tune my body and my brain
to the music of the land

Plant your rows straight and long,
Temper them with prayer and song
Mother earth can make you strong
If you give her love and care
An old crow watching hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there