There’s a line
In the title song of Camelot
That rings in my head
This time of year.
“It’s May
It’s May
The lusty month of May.”
I’m pretty sure they were singing
About a garden.
Iris
Peony
And Roses
Are hitting their stride
Just in time for Mother’s Day.
So sharing seems like
The natural thing to do.
Thanks for coming girls.
Happy Mother’s Day
To every conceivable kind of mother.
Gail
Filed under Flower Arrangements, Garden House, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Generations, Iris, Mother's Day, Peonies, roses, Uncategorized
Most of the country has experienced
What seems to be the longest winter
In recent memory.
Our winter has been
In and out.
Bitter cold days
Sprinkled into sunny winter glory.
But it simply has not rained.
Fires 100 miles to our west
Attest to our dry fall and winter.
Thankfully it starting raining on a recent Friday night
And continued through Saturday.
Bringing hope to my garden
With each drop.
The Japanese Maple trees
Are sighing with relief.
They leafed out on schedule
Only to be frozen a couple of times.
Creating the saddest looking tree
I’ve seen in a long time.
Now, with this moisture
They have begun the process of
Putting on new leaves.
And things are budding out.
Iris
Allium
Peonies
With their attending ants.
And those stunning Japanese Tree Peonies.
They don’t last long
A few days of bloom and they are gone.
Yet, they are so worth growing.
With these buds
Comes hope
And so it is with gardeners.
Whose spirits have frozen
And thawed
And frozen
And thawed
More times than we can count.
But with the rain comes
Hope.
And gardeners thrive on
Hope.
Gail
Every time I looked at my garden this week.
Alan Lerner’s words from Camelot
Kept going through my head.
“It’s May, It’s May
The LUSTY month of May.”
And lusty it is.
Roses
Peonies
Iris
Columbine
Allium
I don’t know how Mother Nature pulls it off
But every year on Mother’s Day
My garden hits its spring stride.
There is still much to come
But this week
It’s glorious.
With lots of blousy blooms.
Perhaps it’s Mother Nature’s way
Of honoring mothers.
Those who nurture
And prod
And encourage things to grow.
Happy Mother’s Day
Gail
Four generations of the women of my family circa early 1950’s
At some point early in my gardening days
I decided on a perennial garden.
My memory is it grew out of my desire to have flowers to cut.
My friend Sally passed along some Gloriosa Daisies
The morning the backhoe showed up in her garden.
I was off to a good start.
Over the ensuing decades I’ve bought,
Been given, planted, nurtured and killed
More plants that I care, or would want to count.
I’ve had two big perennial gardens
With a borrowed temporary garden in between.
Yet, every year this time I’m amazed with what I see
In my own backyard.
It’s the rhythm of life
Played out in a growing season.
It is life
With all of its surprises and disappointments
Joys and sadness.
This has been a week
That has reminded me
Of my life chosen to live
In this “perennial place”.
In the span of a few days
I’ve watched my garden
Go from dying back tulips
To the first blooms of Iris
And Peonies.
With lots of buds coming soon.
Life beyond the garden
Brought this delightful note
From the lady who delivers our morning paper.
A few curves thrown my way
And friends who have decided the time has come to retire
Yet struggle with that decision.
I was blessed with surprise May Day flowers
Delivered by charming little girls
And their caring mothers.
The week ended appropriately
With the hope of the next generation.
A garden baby shower for Megan & JP
And their baby boy to come this fall.
The new week began this morning
With communion
In a place where I have worshipped
For over 40 years
With people I’ve known a few months
And others many decades.
Perennial places.
They give us roots
To grow and blossom.
Deep roots to keep us upright
When the winds blow and bend us.
Deep roots to strengthen us.
Deep roots to grow branches
That encircles our lives
Individually and together.
Gail
The last few weeks I’ve spent removing the blanket of leaves from my garden.
It’s a tedious but necessary task.
Last fall John mowed up the leaves from the yard
And dumped them on my garden.
It’s a natural way to protect the garden from winter.
I’m grateful he took the time to chop and distribute all those leaves.
But once spring begins.
It’s time to remove the blanket
And let the sunshine in.
This is not a quick haphazard job.
It needs to be done carefully
To protect the tender shoots
Emerging from their winter’s sleep.
The new life that is sprouting forth.
As a result I spend hours on the ground
At eye level
Observing miracle after miracle.
Nurturing the garden
And my soul.
Each spring I am in awe of this process.
What may look like a garden of dirt one week
Will quickly begin to unfurl
With hope.
And hope does not disappoint us.
Gail
Filed under Ferns, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Hosta, Peonies, spring, Spring Clean Up, Timing, Winter Garden
I’ve been reading a great gardening book
“Grass Roots Gardening”
By Donna Schaper
It’s a quick read
Packed with thought provoking words of wisdom
She is described as:
“Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church
Mother of three children
Author of 28 books
And happiest when she is in her garden.”
She has introduced me to the idea of being
A “Gypsy Gardener”
You see she has found herself gardening
All over the country.
From Arizona to New England
To Florida to Minnesota.
She has covered the country with her gardens.
This is a great read.
I found my copy on the close out table.
Find it and buy it.
I finished her book this week while vacationing
In Colorado
And as it happens
I got to garden there.
I’ve learned a lot in these few short days
Of high desert gardening.
One – don’t get gardening advice from the Big Box Stores.
Me: “What is the USDA zone for this area?”
Big Box Employee: “Western”
Me: “No it’s a number.”
BBE: ” Oh 7.”
Me: “I don’t thinks so Oklahoma is a 7.”
BBE: “We have a lot of varying weather here”
Seriously!
Time to move on.
So I just started digging.
Here’s the problem
Mulch
Inches and inches of cedar mulch.
Now, I usually try to not get too opinionated in our weekly visits
But, I’m about to go off the deep end on the subject of cedar mulch
So if you are a big fan of the stuff
I’d suggest you just stop reading now
And tune back in next week
When I’ve put my high horse
Back in the barn.
So let’s talk mulch.
I have long held the theory that cedar mulch is part of
A “great cosmic commercial gardening conspiracy.”
Think about it.
Convincing homeowners all over this country
That each year they should buy bags and bags and bags
Of commercially produced mulch
Now forget that they never tell you that
As the mulch decomposes it will zap every bit of nitrogen from your precious soil.
And all kinds of ants and other not so great insects love this stuff.
My theory has always been
That if I – a living thing – don’t want to live under it
Why would any living thing.
Like a prized perennial.
The thing is this new garden that I was digging in this week
Is covered with no less than 4 – 5 inches of cedar mulch.
I’m told a heavy layer has been added each spring for years.
“Keeps the weeds out and the moisture in.”
They say.
Except that as I began to work I discovered that the mulch is so heavy
That the rain and irrigation water only go as deep as THE MULCH.
The soil is as dry as can be.
And there were weeds
Mostly grass and not overwhelming,
But weeds.
And forget worms.
In three days of digging I only found 5 worms.
Not good.
Though I did meet a fox
Up close
And Peg met a deer.
So I set about removing years of bad gardening decisions.
Mulch is gone
Mushroom compost added
Probably not enough
But it’s a start.
I bought a few perennials that I can’t grow at home
Delphinium, Iceland Poppies and Lupine.
And planted Arugula and Mixed Salad Greens
Which will probably be eaten by the deer
Before I have a chance to return and make a yummy salad.
And with much of the mulch now history
Perhaps seeds from the existing perennials
Or those I bring from my first love
My home garden
Will have a chance of filling in the blank spaces
And making this mountain garden
Look more like an actual garden
And less like a Mad Men ad for mulch.
So my advice for this week is
Buy the book
Forget the cedar mulch.
Pretty simple.
It will be safe for all to return next week.
Till then
Happy digging.
Gail
P.S. Next week if I remember we’ll talk about what I do in place of mulch.
Wouldn’t want to leave you hanging.
Filed under Delphinium, Gloriosa Daisy - Rudbeckia, Lettuce, Peonies, Perennials, Poppy, Uncategorized
It is amazing to me
How each spring
The same plants emerge from their winter’s sleep
To create my garden
And yet
Each spring
I am surprised by what happens
In my own backyard.
This year
This “I can’t believe how late spring is” year
I am struck by the seemingly endless shades
Of purple.
I know that I have 2 new shades
Of purple Iris.
Plus the standard deep purple
And it seems the Columbine
Has a trifecta of purple.
Then there is my mystery wild Orchid
And the last of the Violas
Before the heat of summer knocks them out
There’s a rich purple in this year’s
Mixed Lettuce greens.
And a new purple in the Alliums
Planted last fall
After seeing Kristina’s great Allium seed pods.
I also have a new lilac bush
Small…but covered with blooms.
Add to them the purple Rose I planted last year
Could it be
That purple is the “new pink”
Of my early spring garden?
Not for long
Peonies and Roses can’t be far behind!
Enjoy the week,
Gail
Filed under Allium, Columbine, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Iris, Lettuce, Peonies, Perennials, roses, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Uncategorized, Viola, Violets
My current garden is my 2nd perennial garden.
We moved into this house shortly after
I quit designing garden for other people
So I brought with me all of that experience
Mistakes and good ideas
Successes and failures.
This garden is bigger than any other I’ve had
So I made the conscious decision
To use more flowering shrubs.
And as is typical in spring
Every week something new would bloom
And I’d go out and buy 3 of them!
There was method to my madness
Flowering shrubs take up space
Lots of it
They also give literal armloads of flowers
Which are fun
To cut and share
So the bones of my garden are
Hydrangea & Roses
Lots of these
Because they give you so many blooms
Off and on during the season
There are fewer Peonies
Because they just bloom once.
But who can live without them!
Then there are those early spring-flowering bushes
That take on a life of their own
Forsythia, Quince, Spirea, Lilac
And Viburnum
You may know it as Snowball bush.
That first spring I bought 3
I don’t actually remember where I first planted them
Somewhere in the middle I think
In a sort of triangle.
By the next spring
I realized I had made a mistake
They were going to get too big for their present home.
So we dug them up and moved them.
Now remember that these were all 3 about the same size.
Two were moved to the west gate.
Where they reside today.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Why the left side is not as healthy as the right
Is likely a conversation for another day.
Then there is the third one.
We couldn’t really come up with a logical place for it.
So we just put it in a hole on the far east side of the yard.
Along side of few other “homeless” plants.
We never did find it a real home.
Over the years it has driven me crazy.
I’ve actually wished it would die.
It’s under one of our big old cedar trees
And keeps growing into it.
I’ve whacked away on it
Year after year
Just to keep it kind of under control
Or so I thought
I guess I must have missed its annual haircut last spring.
Because this year
It’s well … GIGANTIC
And loaded with blooms
Which is wonderful
Because with the late spring
My yard has been pretty void of blooms.
So I’ve been cutting and cutting.
Armloads of flowers are such fun
To cut
And share
The stems are woody
So when you cut them
Be sure you either slice or smash them
And feel free to cut away
Because a happy Viburnum
Is a big Viburnum
So why is it that sometimes
The things that annoy us the most
Turn out to be our best friends
When nothing else is blooming!
Enjoy this wonderful weather.
Gail
Filed under Bouquets, Forsythia, Garden Planning, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Hydrangea, Peonies, Perennials, roses, Snow Ball Bush, Uncategorized, Viburnum
It happens every year.
When I finally get winter’s blanket of leaves removed
I wonder where everything has gone.
Sure the early blooming show offs are visible
The Iris and Peonies.
And Larkspur sprouts are everywhere.
But right now I’m wondering why is there so much dirt showing.
And what is lying in wait beneath?
My friend Suellen used to call every spring
To tell me that everything had died over the winter.
Then…she’d call back in a week
Saying it’s OK.
And we would have a good laugh
Remembering the same conversation from the year before.
Faith
It’s as important to gardening as fertilizer, healthy soil and water.
It’s the belief that a tiny green frond
Will unfurl into a gorgeous fern.
That the precious buds on my Japanese Tree Peony
Will soon take my breath away.
That come June
These few leaves at the bottom of what looks like a stick plant
Will give astonishing blooms.
The robins have returned.
Lady bugs and honey bees abound
Peg is on her never-ending bunny search
And the Hellebores are blooming their hearts out.
It must be spring.
Faith
All we need to do is trust
And believe.
And as my friend Jerry used to say
Do the best we can…
God will take care of the rest.
Take time to breathe it all in.
Gail
Filed under Bugs, Ferns, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Grape Hyacinths, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Iris, Japanese Tree Peony, Lady Bugs, Larkspur, Peonies, Perennials, Redbud Trees, Violets
Gardening is for me
a solitary pastime.
I love having people drop in
to see what’s blooming.
But I spend hours alone in my garden
Singing to myself
Admiring my work
And plotting my next adventure.
Roses & Iris
Perhaps that’s why I love having gardening neighbors.
Someone close by to share with
and borrow from.
Kelly and I have been that kind of gardening neighbors
Even before we were actual neighbors.
Now that we are only a block apart we are
Dangerous together.
Between the two of us we are constantly changing things.
Sharing things
Learning things
Our gardens complement each other.
Where mine is good-sized.
Kelly’s is mammoth.
Where I have endless varieties of perennials
Kelly wisely has focused on flowering bushes.
She has much more space to fill
And filling it with annuals or 4″ perennials is
Well….unimaginable.
She moved back to this part of the country from Seattle.
There she had learned a great deal about Roses and Peonies.
She brought that knowledge with her.
And has over the years adapted it to our “slightly” different climate.
She helped me overcome my fear of growing Roses.
Rosa Aloha
I in turn introduced her to Hellebore.
Hellebores
Over the years she has planted a “river” of them.
That’s the thing I love about gardeners.
They are so willing to share.
Actually, I can be a little annoying that way.
I’ve been known to give TMI too much information!
This week is a good example of that sharing.
I did a flower arrangement for a bridal shower.
I needed hot pink and oranges roses.
Since my Katy Road Pink is blooming out of it’s mind right now.
Rosa Katy Road Pink
I’ve got the pink part covered.
Orange on the other hand is a problem
Especially since it’s one of the few colors I don’t do.
Lucky for me Kelly has a whole row of the most glorious orange roses.
It’s a Weeks Rose called Colorific.
Kelly's Row of Rosa Colorific
And it is terrific.
So I took my favorite pruners and a bucket of water down the street
And cut a few.
Roses ready to arrange
Now it won’t be long till I can return the favor
Because next week Kelly needs 14 table decorations.
I have lots of spring bloom
Wild Orchid
And an endless amount of Euonymus for filler.
So you’ll find her cutting in my garden.
And because those Colorific Roses are so terrific.
I’m thinking of adding a few to my garden.
Shower Arrangement
Gardening neighbors.
Good friends.
If you don’t have one.
I hope you find one soon.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
Gail
And speaking of gardening friends,
my friend Debra sent this marvelous quote.
“I think gardening is nearer to godliness than theology. True gardeners are both iconographers and theologians insofar as these activities are the fruit of prayer ‘without ceasing.’ Likewise, true gardeners never cease to garden, not even in their sleep, because gardening is not just something they do. It is how they live.”
Filed under Bouquets, Garden Planning, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Hellebores, Peonies, roses, Wedding Flowers
In My Garden 