THE GARDEN IN MAY - JUNE

THE MOST AMAZING thing about the garden in early June is the fragrance. I won’t bore you with pictures of the honeysuckle, we have all seen more than our share of honeysuckle, I am sure. In the winter, on warmer days, I can spend hours pulling it out of the camellias, off of trees, out of the gardens. It truly grows like a weed here. But, depending on the severity of the winter (northern people – stop laughing, right now!) the world smells so wonderful starting usually the beginning of May with Honey Locust, the Fringe Trees, honeysuckle and magnolias. What a joy it is to step outside on a still cool morning and breathe in the sweetness of the southern air. I realize every morning of my life how blessed I am to not be in a city, not be caged in an apartment, to be free to walk on my small acreage, fill my eyes with the beauty planted there and to even enjoy the weeds – or at least the weeds we call honeysuckle. Better than that, I have the joy of growing my own food and each day I love to go out and see how much bigger this is or that… maybe pick some strawberries, blueberries, or later on, some beans, cukes or tomatoes. It doesn’t get better than that.

This year i decided to indulge myself with some plantings I normally don’t have the time to mess with… i doubt they will winter over in my little greenhouse, but who knows? Every year is a new experiment. Here are a few of my plants and a lot of my weeds.

 

This hosta is so big, a neighbor argued with me and insisted it is an elephant’s ear. That is a yard stick  standing in it… so it is nearly 4 feet tall. Behind it is a blue hosta which is almost as big, but not quite.

Right in front of that hosta are these plants and the new birdbath. i finally found a couple straggly strobilanthes… that’s it behind the pink Astilbe and Heuchera.

In the back yard, flowers grow in and around the veggies. On the left, just below the Adirondacks, are some potato bags. All the way on the right is a 4x4 space with cukes and tomatoes.

potatoes (in the pots) tomatoes, basil, peppers, and pansies. Qwan Yin and geraniums are tucked in the huge English Daisy plant. Who’d believe I cut that better than in half a2 years ago. On the right, potatoes (redskins), miniature roses, violets, iris, pansies and dianthus.

 

From the other side, this shows the clematis. Finished blooming under that is a deep red peony and not blooming yet, phlox. Out in the side yard, a rhododendron is in bloom.

Out front, the window boxes have impatiens that wintered over, geraniums (ditto), new coleus, and a couple new blue things – i can’t think of their names. And a close up of the mountain laurel.

I have a hanging petunia and a hummingbird feeder (being filled) in front of Rusty’s bedroom window to keep him occupied when he isn’t watching puffins or hummers on the computer. Pix of that on the next posting!

Hope you enjoyed my garden, disorganized as it is… but it is fun and something in bloom in every direction. Yes, it is a lot of work for me, but I can’t describe the joy I get from it. The lilies are just starting to bloom!

A SUMMER SUNDAY MORNING

I find mornings exciting – well, I do now that I don’t have to get in the van and drive 20 miles to spend the day working at a job that mostly goes unappreciated these days. Heck, I can stay home and not get appreciated and have a much better time doing it! But mornings excite me with the cliché of seeing what the new day will bring and the gratitude of being able to see and hear it. I do lots of posts about Gratitude… note the capital letter, for Gratitude is what gets me thru life. I seldom actually post them… writing them, thinking about all i have to be grateful for is all I really need to do at the time. I spent many, many years being bitter, sitting on the pity pot with Poor me, Poor me, and the occasional Pour me… but the bitterness brought me only more bitterness. It did not make the pain go away. It did not help me to walk (or walk without pain). It sure did not bring me any peace. Once I accepted life on life’s terms and figured I’d better “get over it” in some sense of the word, well… it got better. OK, there are those who would argue that it really DIDN’T get better – maybe just some part of me got better. I had to stop looking at the weeds in my garden and notice the flowers.

I have always loved the play of light on and thru objects… especially as the light shines thru leaves and flowers or lights up some distant corner of the garden while the background is still in a bit of darkness. Years ago I had a little girl living with me who thought we should whisper outside in the morning because parts of the garden and woods were still asleep. So, whisper we did. It was fun, actually, as she would tap my side to point out little things she saw from her childhood perspective. She was not afraid of bugs or other critters and they seemed to know this often allowing her to hold them and whisper to them.

She loved my St Fwankie, as she called him, “cuz he wuved all critters and knew they wuz his cousins.” She said the Buddhas were there to tell her to get quiet, calm down, pick a flower, study it. Brilliant child.

 

The sun in the morning hits this Buddha first thing. His whiteness just glows with the shadows behind him. I see him out the kitchen window as I take my first sip of coffee or tea every morning. He reminds me to go sit and get my morning meditation in… but the day often does not cooperate. The phone starts to ring, people arrive, the cat yowls for something different for breakfast or to let me know his dish is empty – how could I not notice such an important thing? I look back out the window, take another sip, swallow my blood pressure medicine (sigh) check the clock, feed the cat, give him his pill, go outside to feed Spook… try not to look around for Punkin – tho I still do.

I notice the phlox around the ground level birdbath are especially beautiful this morning. The hanging planter has come back into bloom. The colors seem to blend in with the mood of the phlox. St Fwankie seems quiet this morning, still in shadow. Perhaps he is still napping! I’d better not wake him. The bench sits alone and empty,  bags of mulch still on the ground. It has just been too hot to work out there, or the mosquitoes too hungry. And any cool moment is spent on the mower or swinging the weed whacker around keeping a clear path to the bean patch.

The yellow wax beans have been picked almost to extinction… when they are finished, I will pull these plants and replant for a fall crop. The Italian flats have been ready and enjoyed by many of us this week. I discover with  great excitement that I have 2 pickles and one almost cucumber but lots of flowers on the only 2 cuke plants to survive the coonie bear rampage of a couple weeks ago. The onions have been harvested, and the potatoes are looking sad and tired. I discovered that means they will soon be ready to harvest. Dumb me, the first year I thought I had lost all my potatoes. LOL! Stupid me, I almost dumped out 5 lbs of redskins from the potato bag that first year.

As I wander around the yard, I notice my favorite day lilies are in bloom. I now have quite a few, but these never bore me. My aunt called them funny faces.

This is one of my first day lilies… the morning sun makes the center glow as it shines thru it.

Thanks for taking a little walk around the garden with me… look at the pictures, be calm, wuv all critters, be kind, and let the beauty that is out there shine thru and into your heart.

SHARING A SMILE

I am in a lot of pain this morning... so I needed to start my day off with a smile. A smile shared is a smile doubled... I hope this gives you a smile too.

I would give credit to the singer(s) or even the photographer, but I know not who they are. This was one of many shots a friend sent... I just had to share it.