The Garden Experience

I own an oil painting, thick with strokes of greens and blues, rose tones, and golds. It was done in the impressionistic style, reminiscent of Monet, and only after gazing at it for a moment does one realize that two women are standing in a meadow of flowers. One is wearing a white dress and the other a long blue one. Both have on wide-brimmed sun hats, and they seem to be gathering flowers. It is the idealized garden experience. What woman gardener hasn't fantasized about walking through fields of blooms, wearing a beautiful gown?

Reality is a bit different. Whenever I am in my garden I am likely to have on baggy pants and a loose cotton or linen shirt. It's not a bad outfit. (When my neighbor Betty works in the garden, she wears old rags, held together with safety pins.) A sun visor protects my eyes and keeps curls off my forehead. I like the kind of sun visor that has a built in sweat band, because I am going to sweat. Sweat is not lady-like, but most of the things I do in the garden aren't lady-like. Digging and pulling, shoveling and cutting and hauling, mixing and squishing and pouring and spraying are activities that get me dirty and damp, unlike the ladies in my painting. I bet they had servants to do those kinds of things. 

But I know my garden. I took these shots while walking around the front garden.I know the soil. I know the plants. Close-ups of some summer flowers blooming in my gardenThe Lady in Red hydrangeas offer interest throughout the summer.

I can't say how much I am enjoying my Red Banana plant! The foliage is very photogenic.

Many plants have interesting seed capsules.

I am familiar with its wild inhabitants. This Haploa clymene moth looks like a crusader's shield.

I usually leave red wasps alone, but I recently rescued one from inside my car. This one let me take his photo.I know when things go wrong and when things are good. I listen to the orchestra of sounds in my garden, the music of the day and the night.  I am always aware of the weather. I know the sun and the heavy humid air, and I know the cool touch of a breeze on my hot skin.

Every day my eyes are on the horizon. I can tell when dense clouds are coming, charged with lightning and echoing with thunder, sending rains that may bring sorrow or joy.

I don't have a garden experience so much as I experience my garden, and there is an elemental difference. I think it may be what separates a gardener from someone who merely owns the space.

Goodbye January, Hello Spring!

Today is why I garden.

I was in the garden, digging up baby forsythias around the edge of a shrub where tips of branches had touched the earth and rooted to produce new growth. The earth was very damp and easy to dig. Most of the diggings would go to the brush heap, but a few would go to a friend. Once every few years I prune my forsythias and dig up unwanted shoots to keep the shrubs within their boundaries. I was late to do this. Already the forsythias are beginning to bloom!

It was a perfect day with crisp air warmed by sunshine. Birds, squirrels, and other animals were frisky, and so was I. I looked up when I heard the familiar shrill call of a Coopers Hawk. I followed his flight and watched him land above me on the branch of an oak tree. I grinned. He had settled within inches of another Cooper's Hawk. I knew there were two of them, but I had never before seen them together. I think they must be making plans for nest and family.

I know I have already published several photos of my Red-shouldered Hawk, but here's one more. Don't look too close if you are squeamish!

Most of January was dreadfully dreary and very wet, but finally we have had some beautiful days, still frosty at night but with daytime temperatures warming up into the 60s. I know it's too early for all these flower buds, and there will certainly yet be a killing freeze. But I have decided to enjoy them while they are here. Goodbye January, hello, spring!

So, here are some blooms in my garden on this, the last day of January:

A view of the camellia 'Red Candles' in the woodlands. It is still a small, scrawny shrub, but it is loaded with blooms:

Some more camellia shots:Top photo is of 'Something Beautiful'. Middle photos are of an old camellia that was here when we arrived in 1985. Lower photos are of 'Red Candles'.

Daffodils:

Hellebores:

Quince:

Here's another look at the woodland garden, taken a few days ago. Everything is wet!

Water droplets cling to a native red cedar in the woodland garden:

Another view in the woodland garden, looking over the blue bridge. The moss path is lush after all the January rain:

Gardening is about passalong plants and friendship, about lush blooms and feel-good foliage, about weather and work and wildlife and walks to think about and enjoy it all. It's often a solitary endeavor, but the results are most satisfying when they are shared. I hope you have enjoyed a peek at my early spring; and if it freezes over, I'll tell you about that, too!