we’re searching for awe and lessons and kinship
The only two differences between a Hogwarts Transfiguration class and a seed turning into a plant is a wand and time.
In other words, if you can grow a plant from seed, you can perform magic.
Do you know how long it takes for a perennial garden bed to fully flourish?
Three years (more if rabbits are cutting everything down).
The shrub I needed would be assigned the delicate job of both joining and reining in the surrounding chaos. In D&D psychology, I think “Neutral Good” would best describe it.
Pierre said it would be the Marius Pontmercy of the garden. When I told him I had no idea what that meant, I received an impressive eye roll. I was sure they’d go all the way around.
There’s a thin and fickle line between ‘volunteer’ and ‘weed.’ It’s defined by - and only makes sense to - the gardener.
Every time it rains heavily, we rediscover that the backyard floods in a certain spot. One half of my relationship said we needed to install a drainage system. My question to that was always, “but where would it drain?”
I, an expert* on rain gardens, thought a planting scheme was in order.
There’s a distinct feel to an August garden. We’re in act four of a Shakespearean tragedy. I don’t want to say it’s all downhill from here because there is still so much tea to drop. But y’all…it’s downhill from here.
What…we care about grass?
If my neighbor’s grass is greener than mine, all that tells me is that they’re using a ton of water and synthetic chemicals. Otherwise, we’d all have similarly hued grass. So is my neighbor opting to “outdo” us all with high water usage and poisons that season our water supply? Sounds like a one-two punch against the ingredients we all need to survive.
I had a front row seat to the Giant Scabious evolution. I couldn’t not see her, even in her minimus stage. But I seem to register her evolution more vividly than my own. I have grown along with her, especially as a mother and gardener. My foliage is lush, my buds are shooting up. Soon, I’ll flower. I hope that I am rooted enough in the present to watch.
It goes a little something like this:
First Step: Coffee
Second Step: Couch
Third Step: two sips of coffee
Fourth Step: Go outside with coffee and check on plants