My gardening experience is vastly different. I garden with whatever beat up gloves I can find, no hat (hat hair), skunky tennis shoes and a shovel. There's nothing genteel about it. It's more like commando gardening.
"You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt."
Small, picky gardening is not for me. I admire the weeds that so skillfully intertwine themselves around individual plant stems. But I just don't have time to untangle each and every one, so sometimes the baby gets thrown out with the bath water, horticulturally speaking. Luckily, GramTuna enjoys hunting down weeds stem by stem and root by root, so I pick up my shovel and walk to the big patches of mess, leaving the intricate work to her.
This patch has shovel written all over it.
"Earth laughs in flower."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes flowers pick themselves up and walk somewhere else, sometimes they invite a bunch of their friends over for an extended stay. Sometimes they just up and leave, without ever saying goodbye. On the one hand, it's best not to get too attached, but then again, something else might show up in its place, or you can buy another one to replace it. But be warned: stubbornness in gardening will not always be rewarded. After three or four or ten tries, if the plant isn't going to grow, it's time to move on. Stupid Foxgloves.
"A weed is only a misplaced plant."
OK--that is killer cute and nobody can hate on dandelions in the chubby hands of a three-year old who wants to pick flowers for mommy. But weeds, my shovel and I say you're still annoying.
Flowers are an army of amazingness. They come in an infinite number of colors and shapes and sizes and there is always something new to add to the family. If you plan it right, something will be blooming all the time, beginning with the earliest crocuses peeking out from the melting snow. Although the crocus, daffodils and tulips have come and gone, we are full of later spring flowers.
Trillium
Columbine
Azalea
Forget-me-nots
Commando gardening may be a bit brutal, but the results are pretty damn cool. And who knows, once my shovel and I put some hurt on the more unruly parts of the garden, we'll have even more friends to sit and enjoy as the bees and butterflies frolic.
Maybe I'll even buy a floppy hat.
As if.
3 comments:
I love garden art. All your photo look great. Nice blog also.
You're wearing sunscreen, since you won't wear a hat, right? I think I may be more a Gram Tuna kind of gardener, but then I'm not a gardener at all, so i will simply admire your glorious bounty and live vicariously through you. I love the pictures; they are most uplifting on this grey, rainy day.
Flowers are an army of amazingness.
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