Cosmos

From the Greek word “kosmos” meaning “to order or adorn.” The genus Cosmos was so named because of the orderly arrangement of the flower petals. Cosmos also refers to the ordered universe in which we live. It is the antithesis of chaos.

I like to think about how even in the messiest of gardens, overgrown and wild, there exist patterns or arrangements that may not be visible, but are there nonetheless.

Autumn is a season where entropy and decay are on full display— whether beautiful colors of foliage or brown and listless skeletons of summer flowers.

As a gardener, it’s an odd time to think of birth and renewal, when the evidence is not on the surface. I’m a practitioner of “leave the leaves” and generally don’t cut back the perennials until late spring. Like the universe, these things contain multitudes, of insect eggs and nutrients for the next season.

As the days get shorter and the darkness comes, I will be looking for the ideas that are dormant in me now.