Even Though

Marigolds, saved from seed, fourth generation.  They are more beautiful and hardier each year.

Heat indexes of up to 108 degrees, brief showers here and there, and yet, with the help of my watering can in the morning and evening, there are still many plants thriving.  My peppers, no matter how much I soak them, still suffer wilting in the heat, but at night they come back to their full glory.

It makes me so very happy to see my garden beds so full and joyous.  Gardening is almost as important to me as writing.  I have always wanted to mother, as far back as I can remember, and all my pursuits are a form of mothering.  When I write, I nurture each thought into words.  Gardening involves tending and caring for each plant, looking them over for individual needs.  I work threads, fabric and yarns into a new creation, loving the craft and the person the gift is for as I labor.  As for my family, no such thought as extended applies.  They are all mine, loved as much as a child, sister, brother.  Like my gardens, these all make me so completely happy.

Chocolate mint, ahhh, the scent is like a peppermint patty, causing me to almost forget the heat for a moment.  Wonderful refreshment on a horribly steamy day.

One of the grape vines, first year, and to the left you might be able to make out the branches from one of the blueberry bushes.  This grape vine in particular, a concord, is growing at least 6" a day.

Sage!  It is so thick and healthy.  I use my herbs, drying them or using them fresh in teas.  

White petunias, easy to save the seed.

From left to right: marigolds, coleus grown from cuttings, my favorite coloring in caladiums, grown from bulbs, and in back, between the coleus and caladium, purple petunias.

No, Not This

It is going to be hot.  Can't walk on the sand, the sun cooks my skin with the heat, stay inside and hope the air conditioning can keep up hot.  101 frying, humid degrees.  We'll go back and forth for a week or so with extreme temperatures and either no rain or thunderstorms that startle me with cannon blasts shaking me from the inside out and rain down so hard streets flood and my garden is beaten.

I don't do hot well.  Too many days of it leave me depressed.  Where some encounter sadness in the winter, I rejoice at snow and crisp air.  Hot leaves me defeated, tired, and steals my motivation.  I am afraid of hot hot days and the drain they are. 

My Indoor Babies

This is my Pothos, or one of them.  I don't remember how long they go back.  I've had them for so many years, starting as a small plant.  I watch them grow, take cuttings to keep the shape the way I want it and to create new plants, and once I find just the right light for them, just the right growing conditions, they don't move.  They reward my noticing where they do best with large variegated leaves and waterfall growth. 

One of my dreams is to be able to replace part of the back wall in this room with sliding glass doors that lead to a balcony.  Once I have that I will be able to grow some of the plants I love most.  I just don't have enough windows in here to grow the plants I'd like and to let the outdoors in, whether rainy, cloudy, sunny or the most wonderful of all, autumn.

Today, in the Garden

My garden is one of my passions.  At my house I have three garden beds.  One is small and is home to two ancient boxwoods.  It is in the shade, and I've added a variety of wildflower (I need to know the name!) I dug from shady places around the yard and replanted in the shady bed.  It is similar in growth to a Wandering Jew, a plant that has great meaning to me.  It has small, bright blue flowers with yellow stamens.  Next year I would like to add hostas and ferns to this bed.  the flowers shown below are from my larger front bed, and the fruit is in a small side bed with veggies, other fruit, and herbs.  Come and enjoy the things I liked today.

Bright pink geranium.

This is in my front large garden bed, which holds flowers, two baby blue spruce, raspberries, and herbs.  There is still much to be done to the entire bed.  I will add cedar mulch, and not the artificially colored mulch. 

Light pink geranium.

There are more, much much more than just geraniums in the front large bed, it just happens to be the geraniums that are looking beautiful today.

White petunia.

I have four colors of petunias.  Some are from last year, wintered over in the house.

Blueberries.

Look closely.  There are about six berries hiding in the center of the photo.  We have four young bushes loaded with almost ready to ripen berries.

Roma tomatoes.

Like the plants last year they will stay potted and on the porch.  Though I have several garden beds, they are either very small or planted with things that will remain in place for years: berries and grapes, for example.  The plants on the porch get an abundance of sun.  Right now I have 15 tomato plants, both roma (paste tomatoes) and Sweet Million, a variety of grape tomatoes for the kids to pick and eat.

I am enjoying the challenge of finding ways to grow all the foods we need in a house with nine people, and the flowers that prevent the incredible amount of cutting through the yard that was plaguing us. Ahhh, the adventures we have!