Just outside a door was a small garden of a variety of green leafy plants.  “I believe that herbs should be as close to the kitchen as possible,” said Clara bending to pick something.  “That way, whenever you’re cooking and want a sprig of something fresh, it’s not far to go.”  She crushed the leaf, smelled it and gave it to Katherine.
     “Lemon!” she cried.
     “Lemon basil,” Clara said with a nod.  She picked something else, popped one leaf into her mouth, and gave Katherine another one.
     Katherine shut her eyes and chewed.  “Oh yes.  What is this?  It’s familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
     “Celery?”
     “That’s it!  But it doesn’t look like celery.”
     “It’s lovage, actually.”
     “Are all these herbs here?  Do you believe in the healing power of herbs?”
     “Certainly.  But not just herbs alone.  Being surrounded by growing things of any kind, eating fresh foods, working in the soil, the sun, the fresh air - that’s where the healing power is.”
     “Fabulous,” murmured Katherine, drifting along beside Clara.  She’s going to make a great guest as long as she sticks to gardening.  They passed a rock garden at the corner of the house.  “This is beautiful in spring, with tiny bulbs and alpine flowers.”  At the corner of the house they stepped onto a patio edged with large pots and planters.  “For people with no space to garden.  It’s still possible, with window boxes and barrels.”  Tiny blue flowers trailed over the sides, mixing with ivy while masses of colours bloomed in the centre of the containers. 
     At the edge of the patio were two wooden boxes, about three feet high, filled with plants.  Clara stood back and watched Katherine examine them.  “Test gardens?” she guessed and Clara shook her head.  “Why are they raised?  Two raised gardens.  No idea.” 
     “Consider their position,” hinted Clara.  “At the edge of a patio.  What do two of them allow you to do?  And why are they at that height?”
     “Well, you can’t sit on the ground and work them,” Katherine said walking around them.  “And two of them let you walk between and around them.  And the patio means they’re close to the house…but why are they raised.  It means you don’t have to bend over so far to work them, and I suppose they drain better, but I don’t know.”
     “No, you’re right.  If you can’t sit on the ground and work them, what’s the best position to be in?”
     “Kneeling?  No, that’s awkward.  Maybe sitting on a chair.”  Clara raised her eyebrows and smiled.  Katherine was silent a moment.  “A chair.  At the edge of a patio close to the house.  For heaven’s sake, a wheelchair!  And there’s room to get between the two beds.”
     “Exactly.  I wanted to show that gardening can work for anyone.  The disabled, the elderly, anyone who has difficulty getting around can still do some kinds of gardening if it’s set up for them.”
     “Just brilliant.  Actually, now I remember having read something about this somewhere.  Such a good idea.”
     Clara led Katherine to the far end of the patio, where another small garden lay just beyond.  Low bushes of varying shades of green grew in clipped patterns of lines and curves.  “A knot garden,” breathed Katherine.  “I’ve only seen pictures of them.  I didn’t even know they could grow here.”
     “They’re actually quite hardy.  I’ve used two kinds of box.  This is a simple design I drew myself, but there are intricate patterns going back to Tudor England that you can copy.  And the fun thing about knot gardens is that they look particularly good from an upstairs window.  So that’s why I planted this one just below the bedroom window.  It’s basically two hearts entwined with some ribbons.”
     “Lovely,” Katherine murmured.  “And I see that it’s the clipping that gives the impression that the lines are going under and over each other.  It looks like a lot of work.”
     “Certainly you have to maintain it, but regular clipping does that.  The hard work is designing the lines so that they appear to weave.  And then planting properly, and replacing bad parts with healthy plants of the right kind.  Once it’s in correctly and growing well, it’s hardly any work at all.  As for weeding, you can fill in the spaces with gravel, although I find you still have to weed even then.  I’ve found it easier to use mulch to keep down the weeds.  If they start growing through, I just pile on more to smother them.”
     Katherine sighed and shook her head.  “You keep saying how easy all of this is, but still, it has to be a tremendous amount of work.”
     “I do work at it full time, except for winter.  But it’s my hobby.  It’s what I love.  And I find it relaxing.  It was a lot of work getting everything started, but now it’s really just maintenance.  And I do have outside help.  The hardest part was creating the gardens out of nothing.  That’s exhausting, and you’re not even sure it’s going to work.  But now the gardens tell me what to do.  If you pay attention, you get a sense of what needs to be done.” 
     Clara was silent a moment, watching Katherine turn around and look at everything, then asked “Do you have time to see some more?  We have to take a bit of a walk to see the other gardens.  Good.  Then you’ll have to put on some insect repellent, and I’d recommend a hat.  That’s the only negative thing about July, the mosquitoes and flies.  But we need them to balance everything else.  There’s no such thing as perfection on earth.”
     They stepped inside the house, where Katherine slathered on some repellent, noticing the rather pleasant citrony smell, and plopped on a cotton tennis hat that Clara gave her.  They went back outside and began walking away from the house to the edge of the lawn.  

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