A garden full of thoughts...or something like that

There is something about gardening that it teaches me in many, many ways. Some ways are more profound than others. Some are simple life lessons.

The simple life lesson of late that I have discovered is that yes, April, you are in fact a flake. Sad, but true. Just ask anyone to whom I have ever owed money. ;-) This is my third summer as an American gardener, and I have at last come to peace with the fact that I am best suited to about 95% perennial gardening. I am just too much of a flake to deal with fussy annuals every year. Plants that are hardy and sprout themselves every spring are The Thing for me.

There is a garden center about 10 minutes from my house that has been family owned and operated for over 60 years, and all their plants are grown with organic fertilizers and no pesticides. Yayness! The only sad thing is that they are only open from March to July. Whoever would've thought that a planting season could end in July?! Not this sub-tropical baby. The garden center's last day is this Saturday, and all their plants are buy two, get one free. Can't pass up them sales, eh? My mom and I bustled over there bright and early this morning to partake of the saleness. I built up my perennial collection with Scabiosa, Canterbury Bells, Asters, creeping Phlox, and a big fat Echinacea.

I really really really wanted one (or, more specifically three...it WAS buy two, get one free, after all) of their delicious rosebushes, but I restrained myself. I have absolutely, positively, incontrovertibly no place to put one more rosebush, much less three. They were the most delicious climbing roses, too. ::sigh:: But...another thing I have learned in my gardening endeavors is that greediness when it comes to plants is just as unhealthy as greediness in any other area of life. Buying plants with no appropriate place to put them just makes me end up with a jungle of poor, weak, pathetic plants and less money in the bank. It's far better to buy only what you know you have space for and have a few beautiful, healthy plants. And so it is in life in general.

Isn't gardening educational?

Summer in Williamsburg

You may remember my Colonial-style Christmas decorations from last year. Colonial-style Christmas decorations are wonderful...at Christmas, of course. But as the months warm, the blood starts rushing to my green thumb (or something like that...). In any case, I start thinking about my garden. Yesterday, The Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg arrived in my mailbox (from paperbackswap.com, which I WILL shamelessly plug in probably nearly every blog post about books, since the only "new" books I get are from that source...you can still click in the link on the right to join yourself!). I know it's definitely too late this year to start a new garden plan, but it is so delicious to look through the illustrations and photos in the book and dream of changes I might make to my gardens next year! I know I'll never have a strictly traditional colonial garden...the climate difference between mild and humid Virginia will exclude plenty of plants from my high desert garden, but I know there will be principles and ideas I can include. That's the fun of it anyway, isn't it? To take elements from things you love and change them to suit your style or situation?

First roses of the summer

We've had several weeks of thunderstormy days, but today felt like summer! My "Peace" roses celebrated by opening in a panoply of buttery petals! Both bushes are obscured this year by several "Malva" plants I had in the bed last year. I didn't realize they were perennials, and this year they're taller than my second-year rosebushes. Oops...I keep telling my mom that eventually, the roses will be taller. Until then, I'll just cut all the roses and bring them inside so we can see and enjoy them! I am so pleased by how vigorous "Peace" and her sister are this year. I can't say the same for one of my third-year rosebushes. It has produced the loveliest blooms for the last two summers...six-inch blossoms with a damask fragrance that would fill the house, but all the canes died this winter. All I have left is the new growth. We'll see if it survives the summer.

In the Garden

I've been learning all about dry country gardening since my family moved here a year and a half ago. It's certainly different from where I grew up in Japan, which is semi-tropical!

In Japan, the perfect, balanced garden has three elements. Trees of the evergreen variety, rocks, and water. Flowering perennials and annuals are traditionally found only in vegetable gardens, although most Japanese homes will have several pots of bright blooms on their front stoop. Still, Japanese homes and yards are not designed to accommodate flower beds and so, I always had to follow the rest of the population and limit myself to what could be grown in a few containers.

Though American life has been full of challenges for me, one thing I'm liking very much indeed is that there is space for a few garden beds. Figuring out when it's safe to plant things has been tricky...to the point that the sweet peas I planted are just now beginning to bloom.

Oops.

They are the flower of the month of April, after all. Next year, I'll plant my seeds earlier. Thankfully, it has been cool enough that they are doing quite well, and I have a sweet little bouquet in my room, just freshly picked after dinner.