Tiger in the Wild

I was almost attacked by a tiger yesterday. This is what happened:

I was spreading fresh pine straw in the woodland garden. Pine straw is a readily available mulch in my area. I love the way it neatens the planting areas, and it has a great smell. I was bent over, my head down as I spread the straw around some hydrangeas. A movement caught my eye, and I glanced up.

Garden the cat, who does not belong to me, was a few feet in front of me. Her belly was low, and she was creeping forward, stalking her prey. Obviously, the prey was me. She halted when she saw me looking at her.

"What are you doing," I asked, "playing tiger in the wild?"

Her eyes narrowed for a moment as her body tensed. Then she pounced.

I thought she was going to land on my head, but instead Garden dove headfirst into the pine straw, where she buried all of her body but her rear end and tail. She rolled over and over, kicking pine straw in every direction, until she finally landed on her feet. 

I laughed. "Well, you are frisky!" 

She came up to me, purring madly, and I had to spend a few minutes petting her and picking pine straw out of her fur.

Spring does that to you. Birds and bees and cats and people are all feeling the enthusiasm of the new season. Today I planted carrots, beets, and lettuce in the vegetable garden. Then I planted a few perennials, transplanted some columbine and foxglove, and fertilized everything in sight with fish emulsion. I'm afraid my yard smells fishy, and so do I. But I'm feeling good.

I also took some photos of my garden on this first official day of spring.  Here are a few shots of the lady garden:

This garden is only a couple years old and is in what I call the "little dot" stage, as all the plantings are still small. It is on a slight slope in a clearing in the woods, on the site of my children's old playground. It is my best effort at formality, but it will never be more than a pretender, like a lady dressed in finery but still wearing sneakers.

Colorful flowers and foliage are not hard to find:

I put my camera on the ground to take some photos of some grape hyacinths and got an ant's view:

And here is the woodland garden — see the fresh pine straw!

I hope all of you enjoy the new season. May you feel as frisky as a tiger in the wild!

You may also like: My garden friend, the cat and A spring tease.

Are You a Plant Snob?

Are you a plant snob? Do you want the new, the rare, the difficult plant that most gardeners don't have? Or are you content with the common plant that grows in everybody else's garden and are quite grateful it will grow also in yours?

Camellia and forsythia, both common plants, are blooming now in my garden.

My last post was on forsythia, and commenters mentioned its commonness.  Many of us have it growing in our own gardens or our neighborhoods. A lot of us remember it from childhood. That commonness, in a way, is what makes forsythia special. It is a homely plant with a cheerful spring countenance. We are familiar with it. It is reliable. We trust it. It's like mama giving us a smile and a peanut butter sandwich. 

But who wants to sit at home with mama all the time? We need a little of the wild life too, and so we flirt with exotics or unfamiliar plants. These may ultimately give us great pleasure. Or they could turn out all wrong, misbehaving badly, clashing with the other plants, or dramatically dying on us.

Plant snobs rarely come home to mama. They may not think about the commoners at all. They explore the plant world, always seeking a new herbaceous thrill and striving for greatness. Their gardens may be wonders of art or stunning collections. Common gardeners may drop their jaws at the sight and think, that's nice to look at, but who wants to live that way?

I tend toward the common, because if a plant survives my climate, that automatically earns points from me. I have some plants which are not very common, but I think they would be, if only they had better press coverage.

An example is fothergilla gardenii. It is my favorite shrub. It's easy to grow. It has fragrant bottlebrush flowers in the spring and beautiful blue-green foliage that turns spectacular colors in the fall. Who wouldn't love that plant? But they aren't that easy to find, and a local nursery owner told me he can't get anyone to buy it.Fothergilla blooms

Fothergilla foliage in the summer

Fothergilla fall colors

I like to seek out, not so much rare or difficult plants, but plants that are under-appreciated. Dwarf Japanese andromeda, pieris japonica yakushimunum 'Cavatine', grows in my garden. I love its lily of the valley type flowers, but I don't see a lot of pieris growing in my area.Dwarf Japanese andromeda is about to bloom in my garden.I think the best gardeners are those who take common plants as well as lesser known plants and put them all together to create a welcoming environment. We need the comfort of the familiar, but we also need the delight of the unusual or unexpected. It's a pleasure to get ideas or learn about new plants. We want to spend time in such a garden, soaking it all in. Just maybe it's a place to spread a blanket and share some peanut butter sandwiches with a sweetheart.

That is a great garden.