| 2005 Garden Report page 6 back to garden report subdirectory site directory h-o-m-e 8/13/05 Tonight's thunder showers are a rare blessing. The past hot and mostly dry weeks have been stressful for the garden beds. Here at home, I've been focusing mainly on the established perennials, a handful of beloved annuals, and the Exotic Collection (see photo below). The perennials can do relatively well with moderate soaking every 8-10 days. Containers need daily attention and the annuals need water every 2-3 days. Up on the hillside, at SL2, many plants that were originally cultivated for flower essence purposes have now begun to yield their more normalized harvests of ripe fruits and vegetables. Between this and the delicious offerings of our CSA share, we've merged nicely with our food long before we eat it. This summer I've made a point of eating only very local foods. It's something my body and psyche has strongly craved since I've reconnected with the process of electrical flower alchemy. It looks like we'll have some bumper crops. Above you see the edge of the nasturtium border in the center of the northern quadrant. We've got about a dozen cantaloupes so far, and a few dozen jack-be-little pumpkins. Also in this quadrant of the garden I'm growing tomatoes that are apparently NOT cherries, as their tag promised at the farm bureau. Hence I had to remove the cherry tomato page from this site, if anyone's noticed and wondered what happened. You will see weedy evidence that this patch needs diligent care in order to prosper. I've learned never to go to the hillside without planning to weed for at least twenty minutes. I've also learned not to weed without gloves. Or a pitchfork - being of that 'certain age' where leverage factors are much appreciated! It's been a long while since I've worked with such heavy soil, so I've often approached the challenge through memories of my first garden in Boston back in '82. That first experience with clay soil was a real shock after my formative and teenage years of experience in southern New Jersey! While I'm doing my early morning chores and planning any alchemical co-creation the day may hold, The orchard manager often drops by to chat about many topics, including the various ways she's found to improve the 'natural character' of this beloved ground's soil. This morning we both agreed I've done some nice work with my space. I hope we get a lot more rain tonight and in the morning but, if not, I'm planning to go up and put in some serious weeding, first thing. At this time, I'd like to mention my very enjoyable participation in the 2005 Massachusetts Oriole Project. As I've worked in the gardens, walked fields, and gone about my daily errands taking as many back roads as possible, I've been collecting notes on Orioles in the area, as well as abandoned oriole nesting sites. Click here to read a very interesting project update from the Massachusetts Audubon Society. I've really loved developing this mindful, focus-strengthening aspect to my spring and summer. Back in the original garden beds, the rain showers have been greatly appreciated. I've kept up watering in the containers and some of the front row annuals in the main bed but most other things have had to get by with a soaking every 8-10 days. I've been drawing on my past experience with techniques of deep but infrequent water, first learned in a communal garden on the banks of the Charles River back in Boston. 2005 has been a year of coming full circle in a number of ways - braiding many of my life experiences into a wholecloth of mid-life insight and reflection. This type of activity feels so much more productive and healing than 'blaming' this portion of the life cycle for coming apart at the seams. While I don't fight the tides of my changing mind and body, I don't consider them a force of destruction, either. Any unravelling that occurs is clearly in my long-term best interests. Why trivialize that by also trivializing the wide range of personal response options? In this particular season, my choice has yielded great bounty within the process of reviewing the floral/garden timeline of my life to date. Above, the miniaturized "Exotic Grove" lives in the main garden bed's central walkway. This is a relatively high maintenance collection because they obviously have to over-winter in the house. The moveable grove is flanked by larger containers that have been 'air-lifted' to the hillside to provide remedies that are part of the Next Generation series of Sparkling Lotus flower essences. Nestled among a thriving colony of anise agastache and a graceful self-seeded agrimony, you'll find bouganvillea, strawberry guava, myrtle, a Martha Washington geranium, cape jasmine, and two Fortunata gardenias. I'm getting ready to plant the flowering kales that have been growing in individual pots at the very front of the main bed. This tiny strip of grass between the garden and the driveway has become an informal plant nursery. Directly behind this ecclectic assortment, it was thrilling to see the triumphant re-emergence, and flowering, of a very vigorous self-seeded Great Lobelia. Last year's initial growth seemed sluggish and I thought at one point it died, period, rather than simply dying back. This year we had nine vigorous flower stalks. It's interesting that all the very large and particularly vibrant flowers are growing in an area of the original garden where I worked with a very special prayer feather last summer. The ground is clearly energized and encourages radiance at the individual species level. The hot dry summer has brought some casualties and a lot of learning. Favorite current blooms in the original beds include blackberry lilies - usually a dozen at a time! They're very gorgeous and look particularly lovely poking through the feathery leaves of bronze fennel. We also have some lovely sweet williams, deep red floribunda roses, riotous grandpa otts morning glories, a luminous background chorus of hardy orange daylilies and lots of flowering spearmint. The bees seem particularly happy with these spires of pale lavender blossoms. Yum. Spearmint Honey! back to garden report subdirectory site directory h-o-m-e |
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| orioles live in this tree |
| orioles live in these trees too |