Looking at the Impossible, Seeing the Improbable

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers
especially in the month of June,
There is health and happiness and romance

All in the lovely month of June.             from the movie "Alice in Wonderland"

I'm one of those gardeners that knowledgeable gardeners, observing my habits, would just shake their head. However, I've made myself happy by willy-nilly planting things where I choose rather than having any advanced plan. No grids, no maps, no agonizing as to where to fit in an exotic breed. I plant what tends to work in the northwest with a nod to "deer proof" [ha-ha] and bombs away. I was complaining to another gardener at the farmer's market, "the deer are eating my crocosmia and they aren't supposed to like it." He said, "I guess they didn't read the manual, naughty, naughty."

If there is a plan for the garden, it's subtle. I do veer away from certain colors like dark burgundies and notice  I don't have a lot of yellow but other than that the garden is fairly freeform. I did losely follow the rule of bigger plants in the middle of my circles [no squares at my place] and smaller plants toward the front of the beds. I like it crowded so there isn't much room for weeds. Sometimes I find myself, with a freshly dug up plant on the shovel wandering around looking for the right place to plant it. This is wrong, wrong, wrong, but this is what I do. I figure I have ADD/911 as a gardener.

It is best to win without fighting.             Sun Tzu

Since gardening is a hobby I decided it better be something that I love, not something that I agonize over. So my garden does not resemble Monet's at Giverny but does resemble the water lily series after Monet was losing his eyesight. It is a peaceful lovely place especially if you keep your distance and ignore the persistent weeds that poke up through the flowers.** Remember, no agonizing. I do weed-- just so the poor things can survive-- but irregularly to say the least.

The art of enjoying the best gardens is looking at the impossible and seeing the improbable. Looking at the miracle of life from a seed, a bulb or a corm and seeing the improbablity of the creatures like the bumble bees, the butterflies and the birds that happen by. Glorious.

A garden is the best alternative therapy.     
                   Germaine Greer

One of the great things about being in the garden is the ability to lose myself in the minutia of the plant world, seeing the details of how a plant is growing, it's shape, it's buds, it's blossums and it's health. I then drift to who's landing on this plant: the friends, like the bees, the butterflies, the bumble bees, the ants. This gives me great pleasure to then learn about these creatures and this year I'm focusing on the butterflies. Isn't it a grand year for butterflies? Or could it be that I am studying them and so see them everywhere. The Western Tiger Swallowtail, the Monarchs, the Western Admiral, the Lorquin's Admiral and that's just the ones that I've noticed since July 21. On that date I acquired a guide to butterflies, it's written so a child could understand it, with gobs of pictures for identification. Luscious and fun to do. Our sons and all four of the grandkids will be with us in August and I have plans as their camp counselor...

**Unbelievable but true, as I was writing this sentence Mr. G hands me the phone and I've won a set of gardening tools from a raffle!

susansmagicfeather copyright 2012 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved