And yes, this is a largely perennial or self seeding garden, mostly drought tolerant and low water use. And as much as I sometimes wished for a bucketful of money to hire landscapers to just come in and make it so, I'm glad that was never an option. They would never have imagined anything like this. Rather like wanting a cleaning service to come in and make the house sparkle, but not really. I'm much more satisfied with my own work. The job really isn't all about the external result, but the change in myself, with every task, every little success.
Still, a truckload of good topsoil and strong young folks to spread it, doing what I can't, that would be wonderful. Still.
How's this?
Plastic netted dead
sod, weedy, pottery dirt,
Grown into garden.
Sunflowers healing,
Worms return, green onions bloom,
Buckwheat, flax and mints.
Thyme balm, lavender
Clover, grasses wild with joy,
Settling in for years.
14 comments:
It is lovely, and an inspiration. I know how much work a "wild" garden is, here in the UK, and I love to see what you're doing. Good luck with the session - people will learn a lot from it.
Jx
well deserved praise for a beautiful patch
Jan,
Aw, shucks.
gz,
I love it, it loves me back.
Would you come do mine? :)
Yours is beautiful and evidently thriving with your attention.
Crow,
I'd have to move in for 3 years or so... and, it would have to be mine, so, well, um. Not to mention everything I learned is local, I'd have to start all the research over for your climate and soil.
Approaching it from the view of a devoted student striving to deserve an A+. So far, I'm at a solid B, but with plenty of time to raise the grade.
I don't know where any ability came from, save perhaps a skipped generation genetic transfer. According to my mother, my paternal grandmother could stick a dead branch in the ground and it would grow. Thank you Zebre Boismier.
Now there's a name to conjure with. Hurray for developing gardens.
I'm curious to learn what kind of feedback you get from some of the people who come to visit you on your tour day. I'm guessing most will be polite, but if there is any critical advice that could help you improve it, I'm wondering what advice that would be.
What an achievement! Your photos are beautiful, as are your words.
I am happy to pay someone to help me with the cleaning these days, but I couldn't trust anyone with my garden, far too precious and personal, just like yours.
Nimble,
Really is a great name, I agree.
Phil,
I'm sure I'll get some good suggestions.
RR,
If I get to the point where I can't do, that would be entirely different, for housework. I love your garden, certainly one of my inspirations.
What a stunning garden. You inspire me to start again!
Susan.
Susan,
You're already starting so much from the start. Start small, though, which is the advice I was given, that I only partly followed.
"Where the ability came from..."
I expect it's not too far back we all HAD to know some basic gardening techniques, or die, eh?
Of course that didn't mean we had to make our gardens beautiful, like yours.
I don't know of any ancestors of mine with names as cool as Zebre Boismier, but I do relish the name of my great x 2 [3,4?]–something from Scotland, Uriah Sutherland.
wait, wait... you're on a fancypants garden tour? how id i miss that happening? i feel so behind things.
well, awesome.
flask,
You are just a fine historian, that's all.
Hardly fancypants, t'ain't the Chelsea Flower Show. More interest in vegetables, cover crops, and replacing lawns and attracting bees and birds, than flowers.
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