Friday, August 10, 2012

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One think that I like about gardening is that I can spend one day working very hard outside and the next day I can play if I want to.

Playing means to me .. things like .. finally sifting the beach stones that I’ve collected, separating the tiniest stones and rounded rocks from the vegetation that has been mixed in.  Ending up with little buckets of these and a bucket of fine sand & grasses, to use on a garden bed.

And putting together a little raised bed from boards left over from a project that dh has done for the yard.   I had to get help from him in putting them together.  I won’t even go into the details of how I was trying to assemble the boards, but his way made more sense.   I am just not gifted in building things with wood.  I learn really easy, but the hows and whys are just not part of my creative bent.

So I ended up with a raised bed that is truly creative .. in that it is not perfectly square and two ends are higher than the sides .. but this will go on the ground and filled with lovely mulch and so no one will ever be the wiser.

DH looked at my results, shook his head and laughed .. I told him that it was just perfect for the garden .. a true garden is not perfectly square and in alignment.

Next in my playtime . . I separated the seeds from the dried flower pods from the white flowering sage plant.  I’ve read in one of my gardening books that sage would make a good garden border, so I’ll try that.  Free sage border, gotta like that.

Then I decided to cover up my tomato plants.  Having given away yards of Remay years ago … I wasn’t sure what to use in place of that .. so ended up fetching some Ikea lightweight cotton sheers and spent some time wrapping up some of the larger plants .. I’ll take pics later today.

I was on my hands and knees, pulling out grass and plantings from an overhead bird feeder, when I noticed a young Anna hovering above .. finally settling on the  tiny perch of the hummingbird feeder.  And the camera is at least 10 feet away.   So I quietly observe this little visitor.  I believe it must be one of the babies, there is still fluffy white downy feathers on the lower part of its body, and tiny little markings at the outer edges of the eyes.   He watches me and I watch him .. timeless magic.   One of those gardening moments that money cannot buy.

Sigh.

Next I mix up dilutions of EM so that I can install some perennials in one of my newly tidied side gardens.  Which gives me an idea .. one rainy day .. I will spend some time looking through photos of the past few years and I’ll show the transformations that I’ve made in the yard.  Creating areas of beauty from badly neglected spaces.   If I hadn’t taken the photos, I would have forgotten how much I’ve done.

I planted several lavender plants, carefully removing them from their plastic pots.  Soaking their roots in EM, trowelling out a space and putting them in their new home.  Gently tamping in soil around them and a final watering of EM.

Then I notice that the sunlight has disappeared .. .dusk has arrived.   I walk around this garden edging … noting where I’ll be digging in more plants and then finally decide that the time needed for this chore is going to take hours.   So might as well pack it in for the day.

Thought back over my day, what I’d accomplished .. and reflected on my playing time (that’s where creativity kicks in and time stops) and decided that I’d had yet another most wonderful day in the garden.

So, time to take a mug of freshly brewed Yorkshire Tea (the lovely loose leaf type) and go outside for another playing day.

🙂