Sunday, July 24, 2011

Gardens are food for the soul



I love the warmth, peace and beauty a garden adds to the outdoors.  Gardening is comfort and therapy, distracts from life's thorns, and restores hope.


Touching a plant is like petting a dog. Something within me changes.  There is an energy, real or imagined, that seeps into my soul and recharges my spirit.




Touring gardens is delightful.
Gardners are eager to share stories of their landscape's evolution.




Then I come home to mine, sigh.  









The thing about photographs is I can make my garden look pretty good.




Or I can be honest and show what it really looks like.  




We have had no significant rain for two months. I swear, there is a force field around our town that prevents rain from reaching the ground.





Funny that I had four The Weather Channel messages last night for a flash flood warning.
Apparently it rained someplace else in the county, but not here.  
Temperatures have been in the high 80s - in the high 90s for the last two week- for ages.



Watering the pots is not too much work. I can do that.
Shriveling flowers in the beds must hang on until there is time to water.
An irrigation system in the flower beds would be heaven.

Husband's who cannot tell a flower from a weed are also a challenge.  

This is last year's garden.







This is the same bed this year.  He mowed the 'weeds'.   Ugh!  
We have the "stay out of my flower beds" discussion at least once a summer. 




As I finish writing this it started raining ~ enough to get the ground wet under the trees and puddle in the low ground!  I have hope for three pots of shasta daises waiting for the ground to soften enough to plant.  
It doesn't take much to make a gardner happy. :-)

 

5 comments:

garden girl said...

I think your garden looks lovely. The more established it becomes, the better it will be able to handle those inevitable dry spells during the dog days. We do have to give in and water here sometimes during the hottest, driest part of high summer, especially under the trees. July has been very hot and dry in our area. We were very fortunate the last few days to get some good, soaking rains.

We have a deal here - he stays out of the garden, and I don't mess with his lawn!

laxsupermom said...

Beautiful pics! I think your garden is pretty, and I have to commiserate with your hubs. I'm the one who pulls the wrong things. A few weeks ago, one lonely blanket flower had bloomed and I said to my husband, "that's really pretty, we should have planted more of those." He responded, "I did, those were the things I yelled at you about pulling up when you were weeding." Oops.

riTa Koch said...

Loved this post.
Come out to my 'used-to-be' flower garden to be very encouraged about yours. That sight makes me sad. I am trusting most comes back. It will take awhile though.

RHome410 said...

Beautiful pictures!

I can't count the number of times the kids have 'weed whacked' my blueberry bushes! And if it weren't for potatoes, my veggie gardens would look quite sorry. I haven't even bothered trying much for flowers yet.

Cotehele said...

Thanks so much for your kind words.

Garden Girl - Almost the entire border is planted beneath trees. I'll just have to resign myself to watering when it's dry.

laxsupermom - very funny! You are good to 'help'.

Rita - keep up your courage. Plants can take a lot. Yours will be beautiful again in a year or two.

Rhome - Your summer has had other wonderful priorities!
I've been thinking about planting some blueberry bushes in the border. They must be hardy to survive weed whacking.