Pathetic Gardening

Today is May 21 and I still haven't planted a thing-- no flowers, no vegetables, not one seed or plant anywhere. For the flowers that's not so abnormal, especially since we're still not entirely out of danger of cold temperatures at night, but for the vegetable garden, it's pathetic. Pathetic! I'm not going to have lettuce at this point until the frost comes again in the fall to kill it. Today. I must get the garden planted today.

OK, now it's written down, so it will happen... right?

Gardening

Growing up I never pegged myself for a gardener. My mom was, of course, and she was an enormously talented gardener. But probably one of the reasons she had such locally famous gardens was because she didn't let her too young daughter near them. (A few examples of my mom's talents can be found in past blog posts here and here.)

And still, to this day, I am not as dedicated to the art of gardening as Mom was. I have other things that interest me more than gardening, and those things are often easier to accomplish with three kids in tow.

Lack of talent or dedication aside, spring usually finds me outside cleaning up the few gardens I have. Mostly these days that has involved pulling vast amounts of weeds (I did not tend to my perennial flower border garden as I should have last summer-- shame, shame!). Yesterday, though, most of the weeds were finally gone-- hurrah!-- and I was able to move onto more exciting endeavors...

...like replacing a rose that didn't make it through the winter, adding some porchulaca as a ground cover and some cocoa bean shells to (hopefully!) stop, or at least slow, all the dreaded weeds. It smells like a chocolate factory outside my house right now, another benefit to my favorite type of mulch,

putting some favorite herbs into pots near the kitchen door (basil, dill, oregano, thyme, rosemary and tarragon),

replacing-- yet again-- some hollyhocks that have been eaten and replaced year after year for the past few years by some sort of critter and never take off.  This year I splurged on a larger containers, I hope this helps ward off my hollyhock kidnappers(!),

and replacing plants that, for whatever weird reason, just disappeared or never came back (salvia pictured here).

But, of course, still lots of weeding to be done. The euonymus in the front has really taken off, and I love how the English boxwood shrubs look interspersed in there (they're new this spring) but I can't stand how big, ugly dandelions spring up in the euonymus and because the euonymus is nice and thick now it's practically impossible to pull the dandelions. So yes, the fun has begun, but lots of drudgery still left. I suspect that will remain true throughout the entire growing season.

Next up, the vegetable garden, which I'm already a few weeks behind on. My excuse? It has been unseasonably cold here for May, but still...

Anniversary

Eight years ago today, on a cold, February evening with candles lit in the sanctuary and snow softly falling outside, I walked down the aisle of the Kemper Center and exchanged marriage vows with Superdad.

So much has happened since that perfect evening that, in some ways, it is difficult to believe it isn't our eighteenth anniversary, instead of only our eighth. The past eight years have been eventful (three children, law school, changing careers, moving and the death of a parent is a lot of jam into such a short amount of time) but they've been all the more meaningful and enjoyable with Joe by my side.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

UPDATE: Poor Superdad gets a measly, mushy blog post as his anniversary present and I just received these from him:


Clearly Joe is getting a raw deal because the flowers are gorgeous!

Flower Calendar

Some flowers arrived for me yesterday. Not in the traditional sense, but in pictures. What a bright spot in a dreary day.

I fell in love with the Smith and Hawken Flowers Calendar in 2006. The following year I test drove their Secret Garden Calendar and that, too, kept gorgeous, blooming flowers in my kitchen all year long.

And now I'm back to the Flowers Calendar. My favorite. Isn't it lovely?

Flashback: Spring/Summer 2006

It's almost spring; the snow is melting, the mercury is rising and the forecast looks good.

No, still far too soon to contemplate getting out in the the gardens, but it doesn't hurt to dream of what's just beyond the bend.

My backyard.


The back end of my backyard. This is my favorite tree.

Madeleine standing by my rose tree that I bought last year. Unlike my mom, I don't have a propensity for gardening and can never remember what anything is called, but I especially liked this rose tree because it was wonderfully fragrant. I have it wintering on the side of my garage now, protected from the wind. Hopefully there will be more pictures like this in a few months.


And, finally, my prize rose collection. I rescued these from my mom's rose garden before the Japanese Beetles could move in and destroy them. All five managed to survive the transplant and thrive in their new home, along my driveway, last summer. I'm anxious to see if they wintered over for me as well as they seemed to for my mom.

Ah, warm weather, you may not be here quite yet, but you're close, and I'm carefully watching for you. Come quickly!

Flowers

These gorgeous flowers were my Valentine's Day gift from Superdad. Aren't they pretty?

Their arrival here was complicated. It should be simple, no? Alas, an incorrect notation of our address gave me flowers a day late, after Valentine's Day, and gave Superdad a fifty percent discount.

I'm just happy to have fresh, beautiful flowers in my dining room against the backdrop of cold and snow, no matter the day. Superdad though, feels differently. It's the romantic in him, I suppose. Don't tell him I told you, but he's probably more romantic and sentimental than I am. That's a good thing as sometimes I think I'm not romantic enough.

I'll let him deal with the business end of ordering flowers. I just want to enjoy them.


Thank you, Joe!

The First Signs of Fall

The crisp, sixty-three degree air, kids in their sweatshirts and chrysanthemums blooming on my front porch. Fall is on its way!