By M.Sebastian Araujo

There is nothing quite like waking up in Provincetown on a Summer’s morning.Sunlight filtering through fluttering curtains, carried aloft by the coolness of the bay.A piebald and scruffy dog snoozing on the pillow above me.Awakened by sunlight and a crows cawing,down the creaky stairs to the kitchen . The noisy crank of the coffee grinder,and I do mean grinder,a rusty old iron one not a fancy electric one. This is New England but my tastebuds Latin and like strong coffee.Sitting under the pergola,looking out onto my little garden that has been a bloom and a buzz with Summer for along time now. I feel insored to get on my old bone shaker of a bike …this perfect morning to have a peek into some of the gardens in this crazy quilt of a town.Come along !

Here in New England , gardens has been thriving for centuries,and in Provincetonw,where nothing should really thrive, the
battel is endlessly waged .Things are tried and some work,others just never quite take to the sandy of the place. Every street and part of town is an entirely new bio-sphere. Some shady,some not…others windy and chilly while just round the corner it is hard,dry and almost barren. Gardeners have adapted spaces to suit the rythmn of the landscape.Occassionally completely reconstructing the natural design to suit their aims. Determined delphiniums, fanciful foxgloves, luscious lavender, ponderous peonies,delightful dahlias, tempestuous tulips, rambunctious roses, heady hydrangeas,georgeous grasses and sundry other species of the sensous that comprise the “Cottage Style”. The idyll here on Olde Cape Cod. We Cape Codders really take gardening to heart!Long winters indoors make time for perusing seed catalogues,and plotting next years ideal garden.Some of us start the garden, late in the winter while the
North wind is still howling. Sharing seeds from former gardens,(including those fellow gardeners ) are always the most loved.They bring share nature’sbounty from one garden to another.

While the the icy Winter is still months away , the “Late Summer” blooms are begining as the cooler days become shorter and thepaceof life slows a bit. So many things have changed in the decade or more that I have been here,yet onething still remains,the love of a garden. Wether it is one of the great overgrown gardens in the “Classically Dignified” East End or the “Shabby Chic” newer ones popping up in the West End or an austere “Zen” minimalist which dot the landscape …there is always somethng blooming in this “GardenSpot” of a town.Thatis why so many of us have flocked here for a few centuries now. Life is good here by the bay which is hopefully how it shall always remain,no matter the Season. As you wander about these crooked streets make sure to take time to stop and smell the roses. With love from Provincetown!