Tuesday, June 13, 2012

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The past few weeks in the garden have been lovely.   How I want to spend every moment there .. but, life intervenes.   There is shopping to be done.  Cats to be taken care of.  Necessary housework.

And .. then .. time to go outside.  Mug of Yorkshire Tea.  Sudoku.  Silence .. listening to the happy chirps of the birds.   Buzzing of bees.  Whirring of the Anna’s as they fly around the yard.

Special moments in the garden.  Such as .. I was happily looking at the bees that were very busy gathering nectar at the giant Buddleia, the one with the yellow globe flowers .. they love those flowers.  so I was watching them, taking some pictures, kneeling on the ground.   Suddenly I heard a whirring sound above me, looked up and there was a young Anna, hovering, then flying down towards me … curious as to what I was doing.

After a few moments, he/she flew over to the Buddleia, and just settled down on a branch.  Content to just observe me.  This is a magical moment in the garden.  One of the many rewards that come to us who love working with the natural processes in the yard.  Priceless, special, magical.

My wonderful gardening neighbour has given me some tomato plants, flowers and .. oh, treasure beyond measure .. lots of kale plants.  I envision tamari kale chips .. yum, yum, yum.  I’ve created another temporary garden bed, beneath the wild and crazy tree.  This was the sapling that I nursed to health, when the plum stock that was grafted onto it, many years ago, succumbed to weather or something.  Anyway, this tree now provides tremendous privacy to our yard, shade to the ground, perching places for all the birds that visit, or call our yard “home”.

Here is where I’ve been composting 10 bales of hay, so I mixed in some compost, leaf mulch, alpaca manure, seaweeds and where I’ve planted the 26 kale plants.  Plus two bush pumpkins and a large plant that will produce white “ghostly” pumpkins.

Plus an assortment of other plants.

Last fall I’d moved the garden soil around and created some oval and crescent-shaped garden areas, bordered by brick.  I love temporary garden shapes.  Years ago I had proper raised beds, and wood chip paths.  Neatly hemmed in with a tidy fence.

All that has been changed over the years and I now have that area filled with free-flowing garden beds and lots of plantings.

More about that tomorrow .. especially regarding this bed, how I’ve edged it and it really looks quite nice.

Anyway, just writing a few thoughts on my garden .. time is running away .. so am posting a few photos from my  back yard.

Tomorrow, more about my latest update to the kale bed.   I’ll go on and on about the magic of EM (effective microorganisms) .. power to the EM, really!

🙂

A.M.