Last weekend I got back from a two week tour of South America with the OSM and since then have been nursing a husband with a broken collar bone, getting the house in order, going to my daughter’s final Master’s voice recital (she made us proud!) and all kinds of other things. I have not done a whole lot of gardening so I feel very behind. I missed that amazing time of year when everything comes up with a rush. However, I was lucky in the sense that I didn’t miss any complete blooming periods. When I arrived home, all the spring flowers were still in bloom: the pulmonaria (lungwort), the tulips, the daffodils, and the grape hyacinths were all still going strong.
Being the only one in the family with any great interest in gardening I get a little overwhelmed with what “has to be done” in the garden. Then I have to ask myself, “who decides ‘what has to be done’?” Well, me, of course. So, really, I can do as much or as little as I want. Luckily I can afford to hire someone to cut the grass and trim the cedar hedge. That takes a load off right there. I’d like to get rid of most of the dandelions, but really, it’s not completely necessary. If I do a bit of weeding here and there, that’s enough. So, what’s left? All the fun stuff. Setting up the bird bath; cleaning up the edges of the beds so they look pleasing; planting the containers (and I don’t have to fill ALL of them if I don’t feel like it!); planting new stuff, spreading compost and/or manure. For someone who is not a gardener, none of this sounds like much fun, but once you’re in the garden the feeling of being there is much more than the sum of all those parts. Plus, the garden repays you for all your hard work by producing incredible beauty. Here are some of the more recent photos I’ve taken in my own garden. I am looking forward to picking up the annuals for my containers and bags of soil and compost to spread around. Then summer will be almost here!
I’m posting a Youtube link of one of the lovely songs my daughter sang at her recital. La Chevelure, by Debussy sung by Eileen Farrell.
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