Morning Glories

Green Thumb Sunday - 09/09/07

'AMERICANA ROSE SPLASH' ZONAL GERANIUM

The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.
~ Hans Hofman

Have a happy...

Weeding Lessons

I can't say that I'm quite as big a fan of weeding as Lori Geistlinger claims to be in her post Confessions of a Compulsive Weeder at Dave's Garden. But weeding does have its benefits, even beyond the obvious result of an attractive and healthy garden. In fact, I've learned some valuable lessons about life while ridding my gardens of these unwelcome guests. In weeding, as in life:

1. An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Mulch is a gardener's great ally because it discourages weeds from growing in the first place. So does a full garden, when the "good" plants don't leave much room for the "bad" plants to work in. This saves a lot of work throughout the season.

2. Ignoring a problem only makes it worse. Avoiding the task of weeding, or procrastinating over it, simply allows time for the weeds to grow and the situation to get worse. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Just do it! (That's two cliches for the price of one right there -- but they're true.)

3. You have to get to the bottom of things. Pulling or digging a weed out by the roots is the only way to get it for good. Weeding after a rain when the ground is soft makes this much easier. So does using a tool to loosen the dirt. Sure, a superficial tug can make things look better, but it's just a temporary and ineffective fix.

4. The easiest way to keep up with things is with frequent, brief attention. Doing a quick bit of weeding each day or every other day is easy and painless because there just isn't very much to deal with. "Saving" the weeding over a period of time turns it into a dreaded to-do item. (See #2.)

5. A simple activity can provide perspective on big issues. Many times while I've been pulling weeds, I've also been pondering the big questions and situations of life. This simple mundane task gives me time to think and provides a tactile, immediate illustration of some basic principles (see #1-4) to guide my thinking.

6. A mindless task can also be mindless fun. I confess I take a cat and mouse approach with the weeds. "Aha!" I think as I peer under the lowest azalea branches at a few daring sprouts. "Nice try. But I gotcha!" Or maybe they're the ones playing cat and mouse with me -- but either way, I think I'm winning.

Happy weeding!

Water Reflections

Am I the only one who...

...likes to water barefoot?
The first time it happened by accident. I got so mesmerized by the beauty of the first Asiatic hybrid lily bloom (they almost seem more fauna than flora with their fleshy petals) that I accidentally watered my feet. I took my soggy shoes off and finished the job in bare feet. What a delight! Now I sometimes do my watering barefoot on purpose. And if some water should happen to dribble over my toes, all the better.

...plays favorites when watering?
I'm stingy with the plants that have already laid claim to quite enough territory, thank you very much, and more liberal with those I'm encouraging to expand. As a result, I haven't watered the liriope all summer (it remains fresh and green), and the bushy salvia in the side bed (always poised to elbow out its neighbors at the slightest opportunity) gets the bare minimum. Yet the terra-cotta-potted rosularia never fails to receive its due, and the hypoestes in the rose garden is always fully satisfied.

...waters the mulch?
In my first watering pass for each garden, I cover every square inch, including the unplanted areas of mulch. I realize that the only living things I could possibly be watering are weeds below the surface, but it just looks nicer that way. I love the deep dark color of wet mulch as a backdrop for all the plants and flowers. At this point my overall garden real estate is fairly small, so I don't feel guilty about using the extra water.

...still uses a watering can for everything?
This might best be chalked up to rookie exuberance, but I love the process. Give me a few years and I'll probably be relying on soakers, hoses and/or sprinklers. While my garden areas remain small, though, I'll stick to this radical technique. Yes, it's less efficient. Sure, it takes a lot longer. But it makes my "playing favorites" strategy (as noted above) possible, and I like to think that in some way I'm preserving a lost art.

Just wondering....

Beginnings & Endings

All season -- this being my first season growing petunias -- I've been struck by how much new petunia blossoms and old petunia blossoms look alike. In fact, when I started deadheading the flowers, more than a few times I tugged on new blossoms thinking they were spent. Fortunately, I've become more discerning over time and haven't made that mistake for awhile now.

Always one to see the profound in the ordinary, I'm reminded that as human beings we are similar. Though you can't mistake young people for old, we share similarities at the beginning and near the end of life. We're delicate and vulnerable, a little wrinkly, either not fully formed or slowly deteriorating. In the garden, as in life, beginnings and endings create the eternal cycle of living.

Green Thumb Sunday - 07/15/07

Beauty in the Beginning... and the End

Every moment of this strange and lovely life, from dawn to dusk, is a miracle.

Somewhere, always, a rose is opening its petals to the dawn.

Somewhere, always, a flower is fading in the dusk.

~Beverly Nichols

Taking Delight in the Details

One of the greatest delights that any garden provides is the multitude of small details that present themselves for examination every day.

Gerbera Daisy Center

Appreciation at this "micro" level allows us to really pay attention to everything that's going on in our gardens.

First Seedlings

Rather than buzzing through all of life at an 80-mile-an-hour pace, we take these moments to slow down and observe the world around us.

After the Rain

We crouch, stoop, and kneel to get closer to the action. This kid-style curiosity brings new discoveries and adventures. 

A Close Encounter

New developments are often revealed in barely perceptible changes. Sometimes exciting progress seems to have occurred overnight.

First Lavender Bud

Details that we didn't even notice from a distant vantage point stand out. First hints of problems or challenges appear.

A Lawn's-Eye View

These tiny details offer metaphors for life, still-life images of beauty, small but wondrous miracles, slow-motion snapshots of growth. 

 

Sedum's New Growth

What new details will come into view in the garden today?

Season of Eternal Youth

Every day in the garden is a new day, with fresh discoveries, progress, problems, tasks, learnings, ideas -- and, at this time of year, always new flowers.

Gerbera Daisy - Peek-a-Boo!

Something young and full of vibrance is always entering the scene, staking its claim and coming into its own. New generations pick up where the old ones leave off.

Hydrangea - Big Sis, Little Sis

While some flowers spiral gracefully into existence, others push through tough exteriors; some burst brilliantly into view and some arrive rumpled and unruly. Each flower has its own style.

Coneflower - A Case of Bedhead

The variety of artistry and design in the garden is endless. But each new flower brings a fresh opportunity for celebration and appreciation as it joins the cast of thousands.

Simple Acts of Faithfulness

One of the things I enjoy about gardening is that it provides so many illustrations for life lessons and principles. It's a laboratory for life -- both literally and figuratively. One example is the value of faithfulness in humble tasks. This is a season of watering, weeding and deadheading that can feel like an endless cycle of monotonous chores. Yet they are vital elements of nurturing and caring for environments that provide sensory pleasure, produce food for our tables, and create exquisite beauty.

A passage from a wonderful book called The Every-Day of Life, written by J.R. Miller and published in 1892, articulates this much more eloquently than I can:

“It is in the every-day of life that nearly all the world’s best work is done. The tall mountain peaks lift their glittering crests into the clouds, and win attention and admiration; but it is in the great valleys and broad plains that the harvests grow and the fruits ripen, on which the millions of earth feed their hunger. So it is not from the few conspicuous deeds of life that the blessings chiefly come which make the world better, sweeter, happier; but from the countless lowly ministries of the every-days, the little faithfulnesses that fill long years.”

Enjoy the fruits of your labor today, and have a wonderful...