It has been WAY too long since I’ve written about what’s new in the gardens. In fact, it has been way too long since I’ve written about anything. It feels like just yesterday was December 1st…….and then I blinked and it is NewYear’s Eve. How did that happen? I try to not over-plan, but here I am on the last day of 2021 wondering where the month went. I am trying to remember and savor all the beautiful moments of December before the clock strikes 12 and a new year sprigs forth.
Yesterday was an absolutely glorious day in the garden. Rumor has it that the weather will plunge into the 20’s tonight, so I stayed in the garden all day. I moved a bunch of rock (ofcourse I did) and changed up the little garden by thr Agape Haus entrance. It is the first time in 5 years that I am *almost* satisfied with the look of the garden. The old tree stump and roots were beginning to come apart, so I yanked a bunch out of the ground with my bare hands (as a violinist, I like to live on the edge). I dug up and moved 5 Coral Berry bushes from the potting shed garden I disbanded earlier in the year. Coral Berry is an absolutely charming bush and it grows wild in that part of Texas. Since the roots of the old tree were able to be dug out, I could finally place bushes around the house to soften the exterior. I moved the Sternbergia and Oxalis into cute little clumps in front of the brick edging. I had found a hip old retro metal chair in the trash that now sits next to a little table with potted plants. It all sounds too good to be pintiristy-true. The garden needs to grow into this lovely little vision-of-a-garden…..and thenI will probably change it up again. For now, I’m quite sure the garden looks like a train wreck of garden ideas that were vomited up by the Agape Haus…..but since we are gardeners, we all know the fun is in the doing, not the final pintrist-perfection (but I’ve been told that’s pretty cool too).
The back gardens now have a lovely little path that winds through the flowers and tragically poor soil, but I’m working on that. The artistic deer-proof fencing is half-way completed, the cute little fencing around the Oak Tree is half-way completed, the old colored glass vases that line part of the Salvia garden are half-way finished and are about the be moved to line the potting shed. The Cinder-Ugly blocks are still around and have been half-way moved, the pottiing sted needs the old stained glass windows installed and the awning put together. The worm bins have mites and have received a nice tonic of diatomaceous earth, the winter veggie garden has been devoured by deer, and heirloom bulbs have been half-way moved over and over to different spots in the garden.
I have muddled,, surveyed, dreamed, dug and muddled some more. It is always interesting to me that hard work and intense labor in a garden full of dreams can be so much fun, yet washing a dish after dinner can be so exhausting. 🙂 Gardens do take a lot of work. Blood, sweat and tears. Lots of tears. Plans don’t work and visions are never what you imagine. Gardening is definitely not for the impatient or the weak of heart. But I can promise you this……every good and perfect part of life can be found by planting a beautiful flower patch. Someday, when I’m old and fully grey, I will look back at the humble beginnings and all the hardcwork I’ve put into the gardens, and think to myself….
“What the h#@! were you thinking???? ” Haha. 🙂 Just Kidding!
I wouldn’t change a single thing about my half-way completed life in the garden. Keep the dream alive, my friends.
Happy Gardening and New Year everyone!