My Day in the Garden

Spring does not come early to New England.  It's not like California where I learned to garden.  Here you have to be both patient and flexible.  When there's a good day, it's time to get out into the garden.  Tomorrow it may be cold, overcast, or rainy!

A drop of dew caught in the Sedum

 

My loyal garden buddy & helper.

A couple years ago for Mother's Day my son gave me the gift of this front garden.  It had been leveled and new soil added when we re-did the kitchen.  I put in the brick path.  He bought plants and together we planted.  I took good care of it that summer.  Since then, I've been haphazard in my care.  Fortunately we both know perennials are the best plants for me, without doing anything, each summer flowers grow.   The catmint is always good for a big show of color! Some, like the Penstimom, have taken over.  Others, like the Shasta Daisies, never did very well.  Without him here I tend to neglect the garden.  He's home for the summer and working at a garden center again, so we have decided to re-design.

The sun caught this drop of water nestled in the leaves of the Sedum Autumn Fire.  It's what I bought my camera for -- these really, really close-up shots of plants.  Thanks Natasha, btw!

 The garden before a new plan

Yesterday, I was planning on working inside -- getting the house ready for my daughter's visit and re-opening the shop next week.  BUT if the weather is nice and you have a willing helper, spend the day in the garden!  Which is what we did.  For a while we both weeded and cut away the dead stuff from last winter.  Then my son, who has been observing the landscaper designers at the garden center, suggested I sit and plan a re-designed plot.  He kept digging out weeds and plants we don't want to keep.  He gave me this list --

How to design a garden: 

1) Choose a Theme.

2) Choose Plants for the Theme.

3)  Draw a Plan.     

The plot is already divided in fourths, so my son suggested I start with one quadrant.  He knows how distracted I get. My theme is English Cottage, so I got my garden books for that, used them to look at plants I liked.  He kept asking me how tall does it get, how much space does it need (I tend to ignore that info for the pretty pictures), which helped a lot.  So the SW quadrant is planned.  It is at the back, next to the house. The NW quadrant is good, only needs a little tweaking and perhaps another lavender plant.  The SE quadrant, I have no idea.  And the NE quadrant is where I raised such tasty bell peppers and chard.  I'd love to add lettuce to this plot but it gets full sun all day long and the last time the lettuce got a bit burned.

So that was my day in the garden.  Can't wait to finish the prep and get to planting!  I'll be sure to share photos.  I think it's going to look beautiful!

Steal Like An Artist

credit:  Austin Kleon

1. Steal like an artist.

Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?”
The honest artist answers, “I steal them.”

A friend shared this link to Austin Kleon's website.  This article blew me away!   It's a list of great advice, including #2, Don't wait until you know who you are to start making things, which uses, among other things, Patti Smith's book, Just Kids, to make his point.

There's so much there I will probably be reading and pondering it all week.