or weight lifting, but they can
dig, trench, move stones, lay
paths, lift pots.”

This physical contribu-

tion to the Vermont lands_cape
will one day serve as testimony
to the pursuits of those who have
labored. Orchestrated plantings
of stately trees, stones moved
into specific configurations, a bed
of peonies, perhaps, may survive
the gardener for a time as an echo

_of his vision of beauty, cohesion,

and structure that he brought to
fruition. Wrote Eck and
Winterrowd, “For how many cen-
turies might there be the subtle
tracery of a stone wall or path,
the abundant progeny of ‘
Impatiensfladulifera, even natu-
ralized stands of Meconopsis
betonicifolia?” All gardeners
leave ephemeral shadows of their
dreams among these mountains
behind them, fading with each

assino ear. But as Winterrowd K
P a Y

noted, “We do not expect [our
garden] to outlive us by very
much. Nor, necessarily, should
it.” The joy of the garden is
immediate, and intended espe-
cially for the gardener himself.

But this is not to suggest
that the garden, and gardening, is
not the better for being shared.
“Our deepest luck,” noted Eck
and Winterrowd in A Year at
North Hill, “has been in the fact
that there have been two of us at
this work — twice the muscle,
twice the courage, twice the
attention, and twice the dream.
Once can, of course, go it alone,
and sometimes — sooner or later —
one must. It has been our great
good fortune, however, that we
have not had to do that often. Or
yet.” '

Winterrowd noted fur-
ther, “We certainly think of our-

selves as independent beings, and‘

we always know that each of us
possesses an identity that lies out-
side our relationship, and that
those separate identities must
always be acknowledged and
respected. But part of the cement
of our relationship, part of where
our individual circles overlap, is
gardening. We have loved sharing
that.”

While gay men may be.
particularly keen on gardening,
Winterrowd sees the love affair
as essentially one-sided: “There
is nothing particularly gay about
gardening. We simply tap into it
in greater numbers than are pro-
portionate to our numbers in the
human community. V .

“Nurturing is so basic a
human impulse that all gardeners
express it in their passion for
plants and gardens. We know
many gardeners, straight men,
straight women, gay men, les-
bians, and none differ here in any
material way. They love to nur-
ture plants and gardens.” And
they are, in turn, nurtured by
them. “To have something to nur-
ture us is very important to the
human soul, and the arden ful-
fills that function.” i

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(802) 65 l-7529

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fax: (802) 862-9 l 58