Spring's First Kiss

The garden catalogs arrive just as spring decides to give us a good warm embrace this weekend with temps in the 60's.






I'm dreaming of new combinations for the big sun perennial bed....iris, lupines, dahlias.....

This is the biggest of my gardens, running for a good half block along the street.  I think it needs a little dressing up this year with a lovely border. At first I thought I'd put in miniature boxwood; as I did in front of the rose gardens and then expanded all along the front of the house and beyond last year.

But the cost of boxwood and the amount I'd need to string along for half a block got me thinking about lower cost options.  I've got plenty of hosta and some generous friends who will gift me with more. I think all together they will just about cover the length of the garden.

Of course it's easy to dream of gardening in February, before I actually have to dig, divide, plant again and again. February may be my favorite gardening month.  I can look and drool over the catalogs, gardening with my paints rather than my back.

February,

it's the month for dreams!

Emptying out

Lately I've been feeling that my life is a little too full.  Too full of commitments, activities, promises. When I'm faced by a life dilemma going out to the garden can put everything into perspective.

Today I decided that after the last couple of frosts it was time to empty the planters that flank our garage doors.  They were a little tired.

They had been glorious earlier this summer and given me such pleasure.  But now I had a new vision. Life is trying to tell me that the seasons are changing too. I need to look at the  commitments and promises I made previously to see if they still fit in this new season.

When I made those commitments and promises several years ago, I loved participating in the events and activities.  But now I want to move on from some of those activities and groups to new things, new challenges.  A new vision for my life is tugging at my heart.

My new vision for the pots involved these guys.

I bought these at a road-side stand.  I got all of this for $20, such a steal!

But first I had to clean out the old pots.

Ta-dah!  Cleaning the pots was hard work. The plants had sunk roots deep into the pots and the pillars that these pots sit on are about chest high for me.  So to get leverage I had to drag out the ladder.

There was a surprising amount of wrestling, tugging, digging and pulling to get the old plants out.  Much the same as I wrestle with what groups to let go of.  I'm fond of these groups and the people in them.  It's hard to decide.  I'm like the plants in these pots, knowing my time has come, but not quite ready to let go.

The once beautiful flowers, especially the King Tuts, the tall plants in the middle of the pots, really put up a struggle.

Off to the compost pile with you all to make lovely soil for next year's pots.  

Here are the newly finished pots which should last through Thanksgiving and then it will be time to change them out again for Christmas.  Life has it's seasons too.  I need to do some deadheading and cleaning out of all these commitments so that I can find time to do some of the other things I find interesting right now.  These activities will have their season and then it will be time to make yet another change.

But for now, don't they look lovely?

Here's a list of what's in here, if you'd like to copy this look: pumpkins, gourds, boxwood, hydrangea, fern leaf buckthorn, service berry branches.  Have fun!