Gardening Archives - Page 7 of 82

Bzzzz June 25th, 2013

I had visitors to my potager garden in early June. As they wandered around, one of the men turned and asked, “Just how much time do you spend gardening?”

Part of me started to panic that perhaps he thought I should spend a bit more time weeding and tidying. Then I remembered that these folks weren’t gardeners, so his question was most likely amazed curiosity—something akin to my asking my neighbor with more than 20 cats how many cats she has.

Now, to be fair, I don’t spend nearly as much time gardening as some people I know. My friend at Fairegarden is out scrambling around early in the morning every day of every month of every year. She, like Gail at Clay and Limestone, even don head-to-toe clothing and netting to protect themselves from the tiger mosquitoes in Tennessee. And then there’s Layanee’s Rhode Island garden at Ledge and Gardens—a place so beautiful she must spend hours and hours keeping it just so.

But I do spend a fair amount of time out there gardening.

This year for the first year since we moved here that most of my time hasn’t been spent watering and weeding. Nature has favored us with regular rain and some beds have filled in so that weeds have no place to take hold. I have spent much more time planning and planting, moving plants to new locations and even just walking around and thinking about things.

Although I enjoy the whole process of gardening, from the digging to the hauling to the plant shopping (yippee!), I admit that the best of the best is wandering around and just looking at things grow. I never, ever tire of watching how the garden changes from day to day and even from hour to hour as the sun moves across the sky. I am amazed at the variety (and quantity) of the butterflies and bugs that make their home here. I am grateful for having a sense of smell so that I can appreciate the garden with that sense as well. Honeysuckle, roses, jasmine and cut hay combine to make the air better than any bottled concoction on sale at Nordstrom.

So when that fellow asked me how much time I spend gardening, my response was simple. “Not nearly enough.”

Posted In: Gardening, Lifestyle

Tags: Blogging, garden seating

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Bzzzz April 12th, 2013

I heard that lovely “beep…beep…beep” sound today that I associate with spring. No, it wasn’t a bird call. It was Chris, my UPS driver backing up after dropping off two big boxes of flower bulbs for my Maryland garden.

Spring! I love to walk around with the little dogs and see the garden awake.

Young yoshino cherry tree

I snapped my annual shot of a cute Papillion next to the young, flowering yoshino cherry tree. This year’s supermodel is Sarah.

The mixed daffodil bulbs are up and blooming by the driveway and near the hay field. There is a house I pass on the way to town with thousands of daffodils—all of the same variety. It’s quite a display. But I love the mix of all the different types of daffodils all mingled together. You can’t see them in this photo, but there are bunches of little muscari bulbs mingled among the daffs.

The edgeworthia that began blooming several months ago will soon be losing its flowers. This is a shrub that goes the extra mile with all-season interest. You can just see the flowering quince that’s about to burst forth in the background.

Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Snow Cream’

And speaking of plants with staying power, I love this lettuce mix that made it through the winter! But sadly, it is now chicken food since it is bitter. No worries though. I have a whole new crop of spinach and lettuce planted in the potager garden.

This year I am all about containers. The pansies and ornamental oregano make nice early spring transition plants. But I have big, big, big plans this year for containers!