The Healing Garden

So, my busy life has come to a standstill. In June. A few weeks ago I finally got the call for a long awaited surgery. Nothing serious, but it does lay me up for a month. And that month is June. Yeah, so I won't be doing much. The good? It is June and I can go outside. In the garden.

My husband set up our gazebo for me and I have an outdoor wicker chaise lounger with cushions. So I have been taking a blanket, music and reading stuff and dozing outside in the afternoons.

I'm actually getting to enjoy watching my plants grow. Who knew it was so fun? Well, some of you, I know.

My columbines (Aquilegia "Biedermeirer') came through the winter beautifully. I hope they self seed and spread the love around.

The irises (name unknown) my Dad gave me are just starting. I've realized my garden is shadier than I thought as everything seems to be a little behind sunnier gardens in the neighbourhood. I'm good with that.

I only got one tulip (tulipa 'Spring Green') from my small patch by the back door. The rest are suspiciously picked and trampled. I could blame the crazed magpies guarding over their fledglings or perhaps a certain enthusiastic preschooler who frequents the garden? :)

My maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) is just unfurling and dances in the light. Hard to believe how tough this delicate looking little plant is. I highly recommend it for those who garden in the GWN.

My Eared Lady Fern (Athyrium Otophorum), that I thought was a goner, made her appearance today. She simply glows in the shade and I am so pleased to welcome her back.

And finally, a sure sign of the nearing summer, my very first rose bloom of the season. Thérèse Bugnet is covered in buds and promises to delight me all week.

I really believe the garden is keeping me sane during my imposed time of rest. It is also giving me lots of time to think about my life, my plans for my garden, my dreams for the future and what is really important to me. It's amazing how inspiring quiet time in the garden is. (If I make some big shift in my life in the coming year blame it on this June in the garden!)

In the next week or so we have some guys coming to help with some major planting of the garden. Should I lay on the chaise like a garden princess and observe (and probably feel guilty - or worse, bossy) or should I keep to the house during those days? What do you think?

I hope you are all enjoying some quiet, restorative time in your beautiful gardens.

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~ Henry James

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"

That thrilling line from Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is the most festive declaration ever and it is my credo for my long-awaited reward for revamping a neglected garden – the chance to plant anew.

Remember my darling Heuchera ‘Plum Royale’ that I bought before I had a garden, then froze it, then saved it? Well, it is safely tucked in the ground and has some new neighbours.


Yes, we laboured over selecting trees and shrubs for this bed – and there are more decisions yet to be made there. However, I have started planting one skinny, tapering end of the bed that I know will not be having any more major structural plant material additions.

So I put my little darling, the plant I promised a garden to, in a spot I can see out my kitchen window beside a selection that Hubby picked out. His plant choice was the Athyrium Otophorum (Eared Lady Fern). The tag says it is a “smaller, more compact fern with dramatic foliage…wine red fiddleheads…fronds unfurl to silvery blue-green, accented with maroon-purple stems.”

Sounds dramatic, hey? Well, it wasn’t really. When Hubby showed it to me at the nursery in the midday sun; quite frankly, it looked rather washed out and a tad sickly in colour.

What a difference the shade makes. Particularly the dappled evening light. It pops!

So we have a gorgeous plummy plant with shiny pewter highlights on the leaves and a glowing frond dancer.

Watching over them in the background is the lovely Astible x arendsii ‘Bridal Veil’.

I think my new little garden is starting to grow!

If, like me, you enjoy seeing a gorgeous example of just how beautiful an addition to your garden the Heuchera can be, check out the very talented Northern Shade's post here.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Do you remember that loooooong stretch from Halloween to Christmas, after all the bags of chips and little chocolate bars and even the candy kisses from your Halloween treat bag were gone and still your family hadn’t put up the Christmas decorating? The bright lights of Christmas seemed so unbearably far away and you hadn’t even really had a pretty snowfall yet, and so, you scrunched down into your collar and silently trudged through the grey, cold days of November waiting for signs of the festive season ahead.

And then, one Sunday afternoon a few big, fat snowflakes fell and stayed on the trees in your backyard, you noticed your parents huddling in whispers and looking at your with bright eyes as they stirred hot chocolate on the stove. Soon you even caught yourself humming the song to Charlie Brown’s Christmas special.

My little plants feel like that today. They are now sentinels, potted and shelved, waiting for the landscapers to come and restore their earth.

They know it will be a momentous event that will leave them with the greatest present of all—new beds filled with rich earth and room to grow. So although they are scrunched into their pots they cannot help but glow a little in anticipation.

The dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ has sent up some rosy buds.

The plants that suffered such a set-back in the cold only a short time ago have now bounced back and are sending up new babies.

Even one of our furry feline friends, Bob, has come outside to roll around and have his belly rubbed.

Surely the big day can’t be too far away now, can it?

Egads!

So. We woke up to this familiar white stuff this morning. In late April. *cough*

I thought snow had left us for more arctic climes, but it appears that life was just so good here that it doesn't really want to leave.
It lightly dusted everything and warned the weatherman it may be back for more mischief.

I rushed out to see how my little plants were doing that I covered in plastic the night before.

Not so good, it seems. A little floppy and worse for the night.

So I did what I should have done earlier. I put them up in the garage window where it is insulated but not heated. (Never really gets below zero in there)

Aren't they sad? I really, really hope they make it back to their perky selves.

In brighter news: We have a landscaper coming tomorrow morning to talk to us about our plans for the yard. Wish us luck!

Just a teensy weensy bit of shopping...

Did I shop while I visited the display garden at a local garden centre over the past weekend? Yes, yes, I did. Not until the end, though! Can I possibly blame my friend for my weakness? I can try. She did tell me that the special items tend to go quickly and might not be there when I am ready to garden. Oh, and being Easter weekend and all, there was a great sale on Easter items! I would have been foolish to pass it by. I tell myself with stern conviction.

So of course I was very practical. I bought an Easter serving tray and bowls that were on sale for half price. Who could blame me at $12.50? It would have been foolish to walk by. Um, really.

And then: Three very adorable plants

I got this lovely hosta, ‘Touch of Class’. While we were there, I was describing to my friend a beautiful hosta that I had seen once and thought gorgeous. I think this is it. The centre is a soft lime green with blue and green margins that look like they were painted on by a water colourist. My great aunt was a water colourist, and one time she painted all the wild flowers of her home province in one painting. This hosta looks like something she would have painted.

Next was a lovely and finely drawn Adiantum pedatum ‘American Maidenhair Fern’.

I am smitten with this plant. I had one in my first garden and loved its shy beauty. If I were a fairy, I think I would make a long skirt of layers of maidenhair fern lace. It adds such texture to a garden and makes other plants around it shine. The kind of plant you want on your team.

Finally, I bought this Heuchera 'Plum Royale'. Quite frankly, it dazzled me as soon as I entered the garden centre. There was a guy leaving with a trolley that had the bottom shelf of it filled with these. I found myself saying “wooooo” as they wheeled by me. The silvery sheen laid over the plum colour is like an evening dress with silvery tissue over a plum satin. Every girl should have one once in her life.

So now I have to keep them all alive until it gets warmer. If the garden is going to be in upheaval this summer for any amount of time, (as I suspect it may well be) then I think I may put them in the ground right in their pots until things settle down and I can find them a permanent spot. I hope that will work.

But really, I must hold off on buying plants until the ground is ready for them. I must. Really.

Except for annuals. For the pots. I can’t ignore my pots. Now that would just be rude.

"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -Janet Kilburn Phillips