Sounds I Hear in the Lady Garden

Have you ever concentrated on the sounds you can hear in your garden? Sometimes I sit in the swing in the lady garden, close my eyes, then identify all the sounds I hear. Without visual cues, sounds become more prominent and interesting. 

So here I am, in the lady garden, eyes shut. It is late afternoon, not quite sunset. Earlier there was some rain, and the temperature is refreshing. The damp air brushes against my face. The rushing sound it makes sounds like a far away waterfall.

I hear the  music of wind chimes. I have four different wind chimes in this one area, and they all make different melodies, from the perfectly tuned chimes of the blue Corinthian bells to the loud clang of a heavy copper and brass bell behind me. I have been enchanted with wind chimes since childhood, and four is not enough.Overlooking the arbor and lady garden: All the plants in this new garden are still small. On one side there is a row of tea olives, and on another there are boxwoods. Someday this will be an enclosed garden room.wind chimes in the lady garden

Cars. A reminder the highway is just over yonder.

A branch snapping in a tree. A clatter along a limb. I take a peek. It is a couple of squirrels, chasing each other.

Children playing. I think there are two of them. They are hollering at each other, but not in a bad way. They are playing a game of some sort. Tag?

Music from a radio. Down the road a neighbor is playing country music in his workshop.

The prolonged whistle of a train, sounding like horns harmonizing in a symphony, the beat of wheels on the tracks like drums. You can't get in or out of Helena without crossing railroad tracks. The community that became Helena was first established by the L&N railroad. Before we moved here I wondered if I would dislike the trains. Not at all, except for the rare occasion I get stopped by a slow moving train when I'm already running late for work! But I like the sounds of the trains; and I like to watch them go by, when I'm not in a hurry.Set of train tracks near Buck Creek in Old Town, Helena. This photo was taken last fall.

Birds. Lots and lots of birds. Chickadees. Cardinals. Bluebirds. I am sitting close to the bluebird house. That must be daddy bird, warning me to keep away.  

There were eight baby bluebirds in this house!

The piercing cry of a hawk. We have had a nesting hawk family for several years now. Recently I was startled by a hawk who swooped to the ground not far from me and grabbed an unfortunate chipmunk. The little ground squirrel made one cheep and that was it. The hawk carried his meal to a tree above me, and I was slightly horrified to see him pulling intestines out with his beak. I remembered my oldest son saying, long ago as he fed a grasshopper to a lizard, "It's the food chain, Mom." Our particular hawk is a Red-shouldered hawk.

Crows. The harsh call of a crow is answered by another. Now more crows join in. They are making a racket. Hawks and crows are natural enemies.

Whoo-whoo! Who-hoo-hoo-whoo! The deep, otherworldly call of a barred owl. The owls live in the woods near our vegetable garden. We have a lot of predatory birds. We once were overrun by chipmunks, but not any more.

whoo-whoo! who-hoo-hoo-whoo! My eyes pop open and search the woods. This was a high pitched, juvenile version of the other one. A baby owl! But I can't find him in the trees. I think it is the strangest, cutest sound I have ever heard. I make myself close my eyes again.

Somewhere, a siren. An ambulance or a police car. Someone is having a bad day.

A door slams. Kids going inside for supper?

Bugs in the trees. The sound rises and falls with a regular rhythm. Soon summer will be here, and the sound will be deafening, if one stops to pay attention to it.

Ouch! That was a mosquito bite.  I hop out of the swing and take a quick tour of  the lady garden. I need to sweep the stone path and pull weeds!  I yank a handful of weeds, but I will save the rest of the work for another day. The hostas and ground covers are growing nicely, and although the lady garden is in its infancy, the lushness of the surrounding woods gives it a tranquil feeling.Hostas in lady garden clockwise from top left: Sum and Substance; Blue Angel; Francis Williams; Royal StandardRecent images from the lady garden

I inhale the cool air and head for the house.This is the hillside beside the steps leading from the lady garden to the patio.

Happy gardening, and I hope your garden is filled with sounds that please you.

Low Maintenance Roses for the Non-Rosarian

My roses are blooming!

All of my roses are worker roses. That means they give back more than I put into them. The high maintenance prima donnas, though wondrously beautiful, long ago lost my affections in the heat and humidity of my climate, and I never replaced them when black fungus or other diseases took them down.

I rarely spray my roses, usually just once a year with a sulfur-rotenone solution, and I fertilize them two, maybe three times through all of spring and summer. It's not quite neglect, but close. Good roses deserve better. My plebeian roses won't win prizes, but they do contribute long-lasting color and delicate scent to the garden. 

My favorites?

Rosa rugosa var. alba is a species rose that actually does better when somewhat neglected. It has shiny, healthy leaves and single white blossoms that are delicate as tissue paper. I have read that the scent varies from rose to rose, because they grow from seed and you never know exactly what you'll get. Mine has a wonderful smell that carries in the air. I also love that it produces attractive rose hips. The hips are edible and are high in vitamin C. One warning: This heirloom shrub, nicknamed the hedgehog rose, has fierce thorns and shouldn't be planted close to a path. 

Zephirine Drouhin is a thornless climber planted on the rose arch by my patio. It has fluffy pink flowers and a sweet smell. It also is an old-fashioned rose that needs little attention, though it does get more black spot than my other roses.Knockout roses grow in the foreground and zephirine drouhin on the rose arch in this view near the patio. The tree in the background is japanese maple.

I have a number of knockout roses, both pink and red ones. Last year these landscape shrubs bloomed continuously for ten months and were disease free. What more do I need to say? They have become the staple rose of big box stores and many nurseries for a reason. This is definitely the rose for the non-rosarian.Knockout roses grow next to the patio.

Rosa mutabilis is a china rose that performs reliably year after year, blooming from spring to frost. The single blooms open to a honey yellow, then change to shades of pink and copper as they age. In full bloom, all of these colors are present at the same time for a spectacular effect. This old shrub rose is also called the butterfly rose, as the blooms resemble butterflies.

Another rose that does well in my garden is the Penelope rose. It's an old hybrid musk rose with creamy, romantic blossoms blushed with pink. It's a shrub with a bit of a sprawling habit and blooms all summer. It also produces rose hips in the fall.Top to bottom on left: Zephirine Druhin; Rosa rugosa var. alba; Red knockout; Penelope. Top to bottom on right: Penelope; Rosa mutabilis buds; Pink knockout; Rosa mutabilis

I admire the fabulous roses that grow in the gardens of those with more passion and time to devote than I have. But my worker roses do a good job for me, and I thank them.