Glory in the Garden!
Where else go for comfort of the spirit, to lose oneself in the glory of the garden, than in one's very own backyard where time, patience and a careful hand conspire to produce a multifaceted, varied crop of plants and flowers to seduce the soul.
Year after year the garden is replenished, re-girded, replete and triumphant with old, reliable perennials augmented by tender annuals, all fitting neatly into the forefront, the background of which is fruit-bearing trees of plum and apple, along with shrubs like burning bush, hydrangea, peonies, spirea, rhododendron, purple smoketree, caragana, honeysuckle, magnolia, tree peonies, potentilla, spiraea, French lilac, tamarisk, weigela. Sounds like a lot of actively growing trees, shrubs and plants, and yes it is, but it's absolutely amazing what can be happily crammed into a very finite growing space.
It's said that nature abhores a vacuum, and so do I. In my garden, my gardens, my garden of gardens, I have one absolute rule: no empty spaces. So into each space is lovingly placed a plant of one description or another; the which of it is the space available to host a tree, a shrub, a plant. I am seldom disappointed in the treats that nature has in store for me and have seldom regretted a choice. We did, once, remove a Sea Buckthorne, an intrusive ingrate of a tree. And I did, once, remove a cinquefoil as it too performed sadly, sprawlingly unbountiful. Other than those, I have been grateful for the lovely presence of any and all flora which have graced and continue to beautify our gardens.
On summer mornings, post-breakfast, we have established a routine of singular beauty. We advance into the backyard and lose ourselves in the sheer sensuality of the garden, it's overnight surprises come to light. Truth to tell, late evening drop-ins never disappoint, either, as the fragrance of nicotiana wafts gently aloft in an evening breeze, and the pink-white of roses, asters and cosmos appear here and there throughout the garden, half-lit by the gentle light shining from garden-planted solar lights; modest in number but effective in illuminating night-hidden splendour.
The constant and ongoing discovery of 'volunteers', re-seeding flowers from previous summers such as morning glory, portulaca, poppies, cleome, violets, (Johnny-jump-ups!) sunflowers, lavatera and forget-me-not, to name some, but certainly not all, is a source of never-ending surprise and delight. A slow perambulation around the garden reminds me of plants that need to be staked, separated and re-distributed or given as gifts to other gardeners. Some plants require coddling, others can be left to their own devices, to mature, to flower, to spread, to give pleasure and contentment.
Roses, roses everywhere, from tea roses and floribundas to climbers, rugosas and ground cover roses, miniatures and more: pink, red, orange, yellow, white, mauve. I adore them all. As though sensing this they strive to please, and they do, over and over again. They display their beauty in the back garden, the front garden, the rock garden, wherever another unassuming but oh so worthy rose can be introduced, one is. Even tiny roses in oriental ceramic pots atop the table on the deck, and more on the wrought-iron table in the small piazza situtated in the front garden.
A trip up the rock garden in July will take us past small, neat Alberta spruces, bellflowers, roses, silver mound artemesia, ladies mantle (with overnight dew nestled sparkling on its leaves). There's banks of thyme in blue bloom, bergenia, bird's nest spruces, sweet pea vines and morning glories twirling their way up garden string, Indian strawberry swirling around the base of the largest rose bush, cranesbill geranium reaching to cover ever more ground holding aloft its pale blue or pink floral display. At the very top of the rock garden is the largest of our stone classical urns and it flowers with a display of bold pink geranium, trailing pink petunias, and black-eyed Susan vines.
Clematis, purple, pink, huge white ones, and blue arrayed against the fence, along with honeysuckle, beloved of hummingbirds, which miraculously wonderful species we do have the good fortune to see from time to time in our gardens, along with butterflies, bees and other denizens of any good, healthy garden. There are even tiny mice occasionally seen scurrying in their harried, busy way at dusk, and the occasional rabbit, as well, checking out comestible opportunities. Not to mention the occasional forays of neighbourhood raccoons who have complimented the contents of our compost bins time and again.
We have a Tamarisk in lovely pink bloom, and the bees and the wasps adore it. Plants beloved for their green presence are also in bloom; hostas, heuchera, sempervivium - the former two with their far-reaching floral wands, the latter with its odd succulent wand of tiny pink flower-upon-flower production. The low-growing saxifrage with its delicate pink flowers, and stonecrop creeping all over the rock garden sporting bright yellow flowers are also in bloom. Purple-blooming hollyhocks are out, and one midnight-black one as well. We have bright red monarda enlivening the scene, and pink yarrow, pink thrift, pink artemisia, purple sage. Colours? We have colours!
There is, in the very front garden and elsewhere, delphinium, white and blue, monkshood, aster (purple, pink, white), pink mallow and white and blue bellflowers. Oops! forget the Carpathian bell flowers which carpet areas in the garden otherwise unoccupied. We've Marguerite daisies, yellow tickseed, foxglove, fleabane. The coneflowers have started, just white at the moment, preparing to turn pink. Poppies! oh the poppies! the glorious double-fringed bright red poppies. Oh yes, the much-smaller, less showy but lovely yellow poppies too.
Directly in front of the oldest and largest of our clambering roses is gypsophila, and it's in a haze of white floral bloom. The sea lavender has sent out its slender stalks and the purple blooms won't be far behind. Blue flax is ornamenting the gardens, and yellow evening primrose. Lilies everywhere, orange day lilies, Stella do'Oro, and white, pink, salmon, brilliant yellow oriental lilies, I love them! Larkspur in flower, and lavender as well. Purple loosestrife just getting ready to bloom. Phlox yes, one bright pink in bloom, the others hanging in there; white, pink.
In the garden pots there's pendulus lobelia (bright blue, white, pale blue/white) , verbena (pretty pink, purple), marigold (ivory, cream, yellow), geranium (fire-engine red, candy pink) , dahlias (name your colours)), nemesia (bright yellow candy), and our very favourite, tuberous Begonias in every delectable colour of the flower spectrum; big, bright and luscious.
The gardens host snapdragons, zinnias, four o'clocks, gazania, wax begonias, calendula, cosmos, giant dahlias, godetia, asters, impatiens, salpiglossis, and more. We've a weeping caragana in the front gardens and a weeping Mulberry, along with Sargenti crabs and a weeping crab. Another weeping Mulberry, dwarf weeping willow and weeping caragana in the back garden. We've blue spruce, white pine, columnar cedar, weeping cypress, and more, much more. Doth my cup overflow?
Verily it doth.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 13, 2006
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