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My garden is a lovesome thing, god wot
Jun. 11th, 2003 09:52 pmIt isn't, actually, but I'm pleased with it.
Since I moved into this house (1996? I've lost track) I've been planning to do something with the garden. There's day lilies near the garage (much less happy than they used to be, probably correlating directly with happiness of the lilac bush shading it), a bleeding heart nearby, three gorgeous magenta peony bushes, and the occasional tulip, but all the bulbs Pamela helped me plant a few years ago seem to have died off, and there's not really much in the way of flowers.
Most of the ones I like are annuals, so if I want them, I'm going to have to do something about it myself. This year I did, with Pat's help. On Sunday I woke up out of an exceedingly deep sleep to realize that the noise I had been hearing probably wasn't part of the dream and was instead the front door bell. I threw on pants and a T-shirt (and glasses) and stumbled downstairs, prepared to dispose of whoever it might be. It was Pat -- at which point I realized that it was 11 a.m. and remembered that we had indeed arranged to meet then. I hadn't set the alarm because I'd been sure I'd wake up by then. Pat kindly waited for me and amused (and was amused by) the cats while I pulled myself together. She was vastly amused by the whole thing, which she said was her revenge for my amusement when she showed up on my doorstep dripping like a wet rat after a 10K race in the rain. (Mind you, I was also useful then; I provided a towel and dry sweatshirt.)
So we went off to the garden store just a few blocks from my house and bought flowers. Marigolds in assorted colors, single and double; alyssum; moss roses; verbena; dusty miller. We did this backwards, going off to the garden store before inspecting the potential garden sites, so I had to describe the proposed areas and sizes as best I could. We probably bought a bit too much. By the time it was done, I'd spent just over $40, including a trowel and gloves.
Then we spaded up the first area, between the ex-elm tree and the raspberry bushes, and planted the first batch of, um, I'm not sure what they're called. Not seedlings because they're not trees, not seeds because they're already plants -- plants, I guess. Anyway, the verbena went in back (bright red; the purple was pretty but clashed really badly with the marigolds), then marigolds and alyssum in spaced-out splotches, with the moss roses in a clump to the left.
We then performed what Pat averred to be an important final step -- stand back and admire the finished result. Looked pretty spiff, actually.
We had more than half the plants left, so we spaded up the secondary spot that Pat had passed by the first time as probably too much work -- the corner on the other side of the raspberry bushes. The neighbor's Virginia creeper was covering a lot of the ground, and Pat had forgotten to bring her rake, but we eventually managed to get it spaded up.
Much the same layout for this patch -- marigolds mixed with alyssum -- but with the dusty miller in the back. There were supposed to be four plants, but the fourth one was a pathetic little effort that has melted back into the earth and will probably come to naught.
I keep walking by and finding flopped-over plants with their clumps of root lying on top of the ground instead of in it where I planted them. I blame squirrels. I keep replanting them; I hope it'll take.
In any case, they're not all dead yet, and maybe some of them will even flourish.
Since I moved into this house (1996? I've lost track) I've been planning to do something with the garden. There's day lilies near the garage (much less happy than they used to be, probably correlating directly with happiness of the lilac bush shading it), a bleeding heart nearby, three gorgeous magenta peony bushes, and the occasional tulip, but all the bulbs Pamela helped me plant a few years ago seem to have died off, and there's not really much in the way of flowers.
Most of the ones I like are annuals, so if I want them, I'm going to have to do something about it myself. This year I did, with Pat's help. On Sunday I woke up out of an exceedingly deep sleep to realize that the noise I had been hearing probably wasn't part of the dream and was instead the front door bell. I threw on pants and a T-shirt (and glasses) and stumbled downstairs, prepared to dispose of whoever it might be. It was Pat -- at which point I realized that it was 11 a.m. and remembered that we had indeed arranged to meet then. I hadn't set the alarm because I'd been sure I'd wake up by then. Pat kindly waited for me and amused (and was amused by) the cats while I pulled myself together. She was vastly amused by the whole thing, which she said was her revenge for my amusement when she showed up on my doorstep dripping like a wet rat after a 10K race in the rain. (Mind you, I was also useful then; I provided a towel and dry sweatshirt.)
So we went off to the garden store just a few blocks from my house and bought flowers. Marigolds in assorted colors, single and double; alyssum; moss roses; verbena; dusty miller. We did this backwards, going off to the garden store before inspecting the potential garden sites, so I had to describe the proposed areas and sizes as best I could. We probably bought a bit too much. By the time it was done, I'd spent just over $40, including a trowel and gloves.
Then we spaded up the first area, between the ex-elm tree and the raspberry bushes, and planted the first batch of, um, I'm not sure what they're called. Not seedlings because they're not trees, not seeds because they're already plants -- plants, I guess. Anyway, the verbena went in back (bright red; the purple was pretty but clashed really badly with the marigolds), then marigolds and alyssum in spaced-out splotches, with the moss roses in a clump to the left.
We then performed what Pat averred to be an important final step -- stand back and admire the finished result. Looked pretty spiff, actually.
We had more than half the plants left, so we spaded up the secondary spot that Pat had passed by the first time as probably too much work -- the corner on the other side of the raspberry bushes. The neighbor's Virginia creeper was covering a lot of the ground, and Pat had forgotten to bring her rake, but we eventually managed to get it spaded up.
Much the same layout for this patch -- marigolds mixed with alyssum -- but with the dusty miller in the back. There were supposed to be four plants, but the fourth one was a pathetic little effort that has melted back into the earth and will probably come to naught.
I keep walking by and finding flopped-over plants with their clumps of root lying on top of the ground instead of in it where I planted them. I blame squirrels. I keep replanting them; I hope it'll take.
In any case, they're not all dead yet, and maybe some of them will even flourish.
