Assortment

With What You Have | 23

 

Words about contentment inspired this series that celebrates ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness. Join me in the comments and share what you've done with what you have.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked with her through her perennial gardens and kept mental notes as she pointed here and there saying, "This one needs dividing; so does that one." 

I've been dreaming of a deep flower border around our house, and had, more than once, poured effort into the rocky clay soil in an attempt to prepare it for transplants. Each turn of the shovel in those beds was worth it, but man, what a fight with weeds, rocks, and dense soil it's been. Good thing it's not in my nature to give up. Grin. But finally, finally, thanks to some recent afternoons with a shovel and a fabulous offer of compost by our local landfill for only $30 a ton that I plan to pick up tomorrow, I've made significant headway in creating beds that plants could be happy in. 

But prepared beds with deep, rich soil are not yet the flower-filled border I've been hoping for. I needed something to put in them. Enter an abundance of perennials, from a friend's overflowing garden down the road. I'm thrilled to be doing what I can with what she has. If all goes as planned, next week the planting will begin!

I envision a mixture of whites, lavenders, and blues, with muted pink here and there. I didn't even have to think about where I'd plant a portion of Virginia Creeper - at the end of the house where it will grow up and around our bedroom window, eventually covering the entire exterior wall. Oh, how I love that look! 

In addition to the wooly lamb's ears, hollyhocks, shasta daisies, creeping thyme, and coneflowers I'll gather from her garden to plant in mine, I hope to add some peonies, bleeding heart, lavender, and hydrangea, with honeysuckle and roses climbing up a trellises here and there. It takes steps, time, restarts, and more season than one for me, but gracious I'm looking forward to this!

 

Do what you can with what (someone else) has. 

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here. 

 

 

Late Summer Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, I knew it would be wild when we got home, this garden of ours, because, without a gardener around, the weeds were sure to have a party. And not just the weeds. I'd had a couple phone calls from our friends/garden watchers while we were away, saying the deer had found ours to be a tasty place to stop and nibble, or chomp completely (I've had fairly good success with these sprinklers as deer-deterrants, but nothing is foolproof, save for a nice tall fence). 

But, despite the snacking and the lacking, there were some veggies in the jungle garden left for us to enjoy, even though, after one week home, a rogue early frost zapped the life out of much of it. [Insert sob] The collective agonized groaning of gardeners across town was heartbreaking. So much work, lost too soon.

Ah, vell.

I have to say, though, there was a silver lining, albeit thin. In some cases, the top leaves took most of the hit, saving what was beneath in an heroic effort of preservation.

These are the storms we gardeners must endure. Never do we know what the end result will be until we get to season's end. We learn, even more, that we are simply caretakers and the biggest pants are worn, for better or worse, by forces great than we are.  

So, we mark down notes for next year (carefully watch the temp lows in August!), pick what's left and enjoy it thoroughly, along side the corn from this friend, the green beans from that one, and the summer squash free for the taking from a box at the post office - lucky pickings from just-so gardens that miraculously escaped the frost.

Because that's the other thing gardeners do - after they've weathered the storm, they share what they have that you might not. 

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here. 

 

 

By Seeds & Soil

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

It draws me like an invisible current, the morning sun that drifts lightly over the hushed and darkened, slowly warming earth awake. It pulls me outside, where the birds are caught in a chorus, where the kitties yawn and stretch, where the garden grows quietly.

Food is growing there, like that. Tiny green tomatoes, I can see them looking for all the world like they know exactly what to do. Peas, there ready to climb. Onions and potatoes, swelling every moment in their cradle underground. A baby leaf of arugula picked and into my mouth, that spicy taste of green on my tongue. 

It's a small one, this garden. Just eight beds - each four feet in one direction, twelve in the other, dug right  into the sod. Between them, grass grows in those green shag paths, a cool brush on bare feet, a comfy seat when tying the tomatoes or pulling the weeds. 

I'm a student here, pupil of the wisdom encased in every seed. I'm tending, watching, cheering. Blown away every time by seeds and soil.

 

For the curious:

The pea trellises? Here.

I admit, I've got love eyes for my rotary grass mower.*

The bean trellises are a simple design the boys and I made from cedar 1 x 2. Apologies that there is no link to offer - this design came from me. 

*Not affilliate links, I just wanted to share.

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here.