Garden Lessons

The best-laid gardening plans - and boy do I make organized gardening plans - sometimes come to naught.  In fact, that’s one of the greatest appeals of gardening in my world.  It’s a lesson in patience and a reminder of all the ways that I am not in charge of the world and must make do with the cards I am dealt.  Case in point: this section of my backyard garden patch.  

I tilled it a few years back and gave a try at planting carrots back here.  There wasn’t much of a harvest.  That fall, I laid out some fertilizer and the following spring I planted zinnias in this patch.  I had some flowers but not as many as I would have liked.  Again, I concluded that the soil was poor.  That fall, I tried a deeper tilling and discovered that the area has fill dirt and layer of concrete just about a foot below the fill.  That’s great soil for growing weeds and grass but no good for carrots or zinnias.  At first, I thought that the patch would simply lay fallow this summer.  

Then I got a new plan.  

I’ve always thought it would be nice to sit out here and admire the garden in the late afternoon shade.  Now I can do just that.  Presenting my backyard garden shady glen.

Next to the chairs is the section of the garden I’ve devoted to perennial plants: hostas, rosebushes, a hydrangea, and a patch of gladiola bulbs.  It awaits a layer of mulch, a task for next week, when I plan to take a few days off.  The rest is my annual garden with tomatoes, cukes, herbs, rows of zinnias, and the annual dahlia bulbs.

It’s a peaceful refuge back here amongst the thick green foliage of my fruit trees and my garden.  I can admire the plants I’ve cultivated.   It’s a comfy spot for enjoying a cold glass of iced tea, reading a good book and enjoying an afternoon doze.  If I play my cards right, I might even see the mama bunny who lives with her babies under the hedge.  It’s summer and there is time enough to watch my flowers grow and my tomatoes ripen.  That’s happy.