Where have the past few days gone? It's Wednesday? Really?
Very little knitting has happened over the past few days. I have had my hands in the dirt. A couple of the blogs that I regularly read have been showing the most beautiful garden pictures. Pictures of gardens that are down right spectacular and made possible by an actual, real person. My yard is an experiment in Darwinism. It is strictly survival of the fittest around here.
Five years ago, right after we bought the house, we spent a lot of time and energy pulling out the overgrown shrubs. There was even a finger broken by an evil holly tree. We had the last laugh when we burned the last of the logs from that holly tree last summer. Anyway, after the yanking out of the ugly stuff, a flurry of planting began. Beautiful flowers and plants. I quickly learned just how much space I was able to care for and which plants were hardy enough to withstand my care. Or lack of care, as the case may be.
About three years ago I finally figured out what plants were strong enough to live and how big a space I was able to water and weed. For the past three years the front flower bed has looked pretty good and the deck pots are spectacular. So this year I was feeling a little cocky and decided to branch out (ha!) a bit. This year, for the very first time I started plants from seeds.
This tray holds three varieties of sunflowers. The big ones in front are Mammoth Sunflowers that grow to 12 feet. I plan to ring the yard with them.
I have also grown food.
This year I planted two kinds of peas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, lettuce, beets, carrots, zucchini, pumpkins, chard and corn. Look, they grew!!! In fact everything has grown. It seems we have a critter that finds the green beans quite tasty. The first shoots have been eaten and I replanted a second crop, but I am not going to hold my breath. So far this small scale experiment has me very excited and I plan to do much more next year.
Finally, last weekend I learned that this is a Lupine.
This little guy has been in a pot full of sand for three years and this is the first year he has bloomed. Now that I know he/she is a Lupine and that they can grow to be quite large, this blooming will be rewarded by freedom. I will move it to a permanent spot in the ground this fall.
For you real gardeners out there, this is not much much. For me? It is transforming.
It is fabulous! Any garden is fabulous, just by the very act of being a garden. And your peas are ahead of mine, as we still have flowers on ours but not pea pods.
Posted by: kate | June 11, 2009 at 07:48 AM