Tag Archives: garden

The riotous garden

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“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” – Margaret Atwood

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He stood next to me looking out at our garden and said, “I want a riotous garden – like this.” He pointed specifically to the riot of irises and butterfly bush all grown over one another, and I see the dividing of bulbs that will soon come.

One view of a garden in our front yard

My husband and I built this raised garden when we were still newlyweds, adding stone and dirt and mulch and plants around an old oak tree that needed more dirt for its roots to thrive.

Some areas have grown in better than others. Beginner’s luck, I think, as I happen to get some plants in exactly the right place for them to grow riotously. Like the irises, mostly from my mother’s garden – purples, whites, yellows and sherbet-y combinations – that have taken off this year and created a bounty of blooms.  Continue reading →

Spring things that make me go “Yay”

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Today’s post title gives away my age a bit, as it’s inspired by Arsenio Hall’s “Things that make you go ‘Hmmm'” segment on his short-lived, late-night show back when I was coming of age.

After a mild winter, spring has come early and breathtakingly. So I wanted to share some of the things about spring that make me go “Yay.”

An azalea blazing in my front garden

The only ranunculus to come back for the third year

The first snapdragon to bloom this spring -- I love the fuzz on its buds.

I love, love, love snapdragons, and they perennialize for at least a few years at a time here. This is the third year (I think) that this particular set has come back. I’ll plant more this year Continue reading →

When it’s time to repot

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You’ve heard the expression, “Bloom where you’re planted.” While I believe it’s a good saying to encourage us to make the best of our circumstances, I also think it’s true that sometimes we simply need to move out of particular situations to improve our lives.

If you’re like me, you’re already looking around your garden preparing for Spring and planning what plants you might need to repot or move to a different part of the garden. Repotting or transplanting plants can be essential to those plants’ survival. Maybe the pots are too small for their roots to thrive. Maybe their spot in the garden has become too shady for them to grow and bloom and flourish the way they should.

The same may be true of your own life. Sometimes staying put and making the best of a situation is simply not the best strategy. Maybe it’s a destructive relationship that we need to leave behind. Or an untenable work environment. Or an addiction to something unhealthy. Or simply a lazy habit.  Continue reading →

The blob in my vase

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I just had to share this cool moment with you. A short time ago, I walked by a vase that was holding two gladiolas (gladioli?) from my garden. These were flowers I had cut and brought into the house at least four days ago.

In case you don’t know what gladiolas are, here are some sample pictures. I’m not in any way endorsing this nursery. I just like their pictures of glads.

They look like a sword filled with flowers one above another. One problem is that they keep tipping over because they’re so heavy. When the stems snap completely in two, I bring them inside and put them in a vase.

But here’s the issue I’m having. Ants love glads. They invade the flowers by the hundreds, or so it seems when I bring a glad inside. As I walked by the vase holding the glads, I noticed a dark blob floating on top of the water in the vase. So I stopped to check it out.  Continue reading →

Weeds or treasure

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I spent the last week and a half in California on a whirlwind vacation with my husband, where we tried to pack in lots of different activities and destinations during our time there. One of my favorite stops was Yosemite, a place neither of us had visited before, mercifully still open despite threats of an impending government shutdown.

Talk about huge trees and waterfalls beyond my comprehension! If you have never been, go (and I say this to you no matter where you live in the world). Yosemite surpasses all of its hype. April means early spring there, and the waterfalls are competing to outdo one another with their flow of snow melt. The massive sequoias and grand boulders made me feel smaller than I’ve ever felt.

While at Yosemite, I found a quote from John Muir, conservationist and national parks champion, that I wanted to share with you:

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as the sunshine flows
into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness
into you, and the storms their energy, while cares
will drop off like autumn leaves.

Continue reading →