Category Archive: Gardening
**Photo disclaimer: These tomatoes are in my dad’s garden, not mine!
It’s getting to that time of year where I have to force myself to work in the garden. It’s mid-July, which, in Nebraska means it’s pretty hot and ridiculously humid outdoors. The mosquitoes find me irresistible while the weeds find my garden patch irresistible. Plus, the vegetable garden, by this point in the season, is doing well and doesn’t seem to need as much TLC anymore. It’s easy to throw up my hands and surrender to the elements by staying indoors with the AC cranked up. However, I need to resist that desire because my garden is growing like crazy and someone, moi, needs to keep up with it.
This year I planted kale, mixed lettuces, white onions, bush beans, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, zinnias and sunflowers. Oh yeah, and broccoli. Tender, sweet little shoots of broccoli, which made a delightful meal for some foul beast back in May. And yet, in an odd turn of events, a broccoli plant sprouted up among the beans and when I peeked at my garden tonight, there was a green head on the plant. Awesome.
We’re enjoying Year Two of our neighborhood garden. Again we were allowed a portion of the old Zion Church lot (now it belongs to our church, Redeemer) and again our awesome neighbors measured out plots, tilled the ground, and fenced off a bit of earth. It felt like a good old-fashioned moment of Americana when we gathered together for a BBQ outside the garden in June. Everyone was introduced, or re-introduced, food was shared, the young garden admired.
So tomorrow, I absolutely have to get into my little space and pull some weeds. Perhaps it’ll rain tonight and my task will become a bit simpler. The kale is growing like mad and I’ve promised bags of it to my mom and a friend. I am sure the beans are ready for picking and an empty vase awaits the zinnias. And maybe, if I’m lucky, a tomato will be ripe.
My heart has just started to thaw from the harsh and frozen memories of last winter. I’ll take the heat, the humidity, and even the darn mosquito bites if it means I get to enjoy summer for a little bit longer.
The personally-appointed gag order has been lifted.
And I really don’t know what to say.
I’m reminded this morning to slow down and take a few minutes to breathe in the new colors of our garden outside. It’s the peonies, sitting on our dining room table, releasing ants for dog and kiddo to catch, that make me appreciate this moment. This day, May 26, rolls around only once a year and while the date is of no importance, the moment where peonies, pincushion flowers and the little princess spirea are blooming is significant. Gardens change in seasons. Certain plants bloom at certain times and it’s fitting to enjoy them at their peak.
There’s a beauty in planting a garden from scratch. We walked into our home in December 2001, greeted by very little grass in the backyard and a whole lot of ugly. There was an empty dog run taking up a ridiculous amount of space in our small city lot. A tall privacy fence blocked our yard from the four cute children next door. An RV had been parked almost up to the back door and the dirt in the “parking spot” was saturated with oil and other nastiness. Our front porch, formerly existing as housing for any and all clutter owned by the previous homeowner, was cordoned off to outsiders and bore a sign saying, “No Solicitors!” There was no front garden to speak of.
So we moved into the place knowing that our new neighbor (and pastor and friend) loved to garden. Since I worked with him in the church office, he was constantly asking me when I wanted a few transplants from his gardens. I’m pretty sure Brad ended up in the yard with a shovel and a plant or two, and that’s how we got rolling.
The delight in going from a yard of nothing to a yard of something is that we can look at every plant and recall something about its origin. The south side of the house sees the bee balm that Brad unceremoniously deposited in the earth. It has taken a beating (there was that one summer I didn’t water it hardly at all), but still produces gorgeous purple flowers that both bees and Beccas appreciate. There is the unbelievably healthy variegated dogwood bush in the backyard that Jeremy and my dad planted. It was so small in the beginning; hard to believe considering how huge it is now. We trim it back every year to prevent it from taking over the universe. More recently, I’m seeing a second wave of perennials as they move around the yard. Sometime in the last eight years—I can’t say exactly when—Jeremy became quite the gardener and began his work as Master Gardener around here. Since then he has planted, and now transplanted, numerous plants. There’s the salvia, sedum, grasses and black-eyed susans now bordering the alley in the furthest point in our yard. They all began in different locations but have been divided and then transplanted according to the Master’s will. The peonies, which make me happy beyond explanation, came from a cardboard box at Sam’s Club. Only two bulbs (if that’s what you call what I found in that box) turned into the glorious plants that shoot from the ground each spring. And then there are the plants I can’t even name because Jeremy picked them out and planted them on his own.
There is something deeply satisfying about the garden. It’s an investment in both one’s spirit and one’s future, and it’s rewards are seemingly endless.
Excuse me, I spy another healthy black ant on my table, another escapee from the petals of the pink peonies in front of me.
The magnificent purple trees you see around town right now are redbuds. Some are quite large, but most are smallish trees. And they are absolutely gorgeous this time of year.
A few years back, our friend Karma gave us a teeny tiny redbud. It looked like a weed of a tree and was so small we had to mark it in the garden so that we wouldn’t accidentally step on it or pull it up. But Karma told us that this tree would grow successfully—and she was right.
Finally our tree, now as tall as the garage, has actual red buds on it. It’s taken three years (or it is four?), but we’re seeing the trademark blossoms. And we’re enjoying them like the proud parents we are.
I love this season. Have I said that before? ; )
Here we have photographic evidence that spring can’t be held back, that winter can’t last forever. Praise God for these small flowers of promise!
Livia and I scouted for living plants a few days ago and you would’ve thought we had found buried treasure by our excitement. I suppose, in a sense, we did find buried treasure. Clusters of crocus, purple and gold. Hurray for spring!
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow…
Praise Him, all creatures here below…
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host…
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Does anyone know the name of this plant? Christina? Karma?
The Sunken Gardens really are phenomenal right now. (Or at least they were gorgeous two days ago when we visited. It’s since gotten pretty chilly in the mornings, but no frost yet.)
The flowers and bushes are at their peak of beauty, their enormous blooms almost hide garden paths from view. A few months ago I could see little heads pretty much anywhere in the park, but Monday I had a hard time keeping an eye on Livia while shooting various blossoms.
It’s no wonder Claude Monet painted water lilies. I was captured by these purple flowers in particular and wanted to preserve them just the way they were that afternoon, with the sun glowing brilliantly on the purple petals.
