Demanding an audience

As a photographer of limited skill and talent, I know there are scenes in my garden that I'll never be able to fully capture with my camera.  And even the most skilled and talented photographers can't capture all of the elements - the scent, the sound, the feel of the air.  So why is it that when I encounter one of those scenes - one that stops me in my tracks, makes my heart beat fast, causes me to whisper an awe-filled "thank you" - my very next impulse is to go get the camera?  

Surely I want to preserve the moment for myself - the photos, after all, will remind me of the smells and the sounds and the awe.  But it's more than that.  I know it's more because the next thing I want to do is show someone the photos I've taken.  I want to share the experience.

Is this universally true of gardeners - that we all want to share our gardens?

This time of year there is so much I want to share!

This little wren had to wrestle some of those twigs inside the bird house.

The Shasta Daisies must be the cheeriest flowers in the garden.

Red Yarrow, from our local Master Gardeners Plant Sale

I thought the asters bloomed in the fall, but not this variety.

I planted a pair of these daisy gardenias beside our sweet dog Bear's grave.
A sweet flower for a sweet dog.

Coneflower.

I love them when they're opening up.

Snow Fountains Gaura - a favorite of the bees.

Blue Salvia - the bees love this one, too.
Can you see the bee in the photo?

Hosta blooms attract the bees, too.

"Ditch" lilies

August beauty gardenia

My favorite shots of the hydrangeas are the close-ups.

"Gardening, I told myself, is the  most sociable of hobbies.  The very nature of one's field of activities demands an audience.  No one wants flowers to blush unseen or waste their sweetness."

Barbara Cheney - The Atlantic Monthly, June 1936

Something new every morning

The transformation in my garden over the last week has been amazing.  We're at that stage of Spring when every morning brings some new bud or bloom or bright green shoot peeking out from the leaves.  The Chestnut Oak has begun to toss its tassels everywhere, on top of the yellow layer of pine pollen, 

but it's a small price to pay for all of this new life.

We spent the weekend away from the garden, at the family lake house where I spent a lot of 

time watching the bluebirds from the porch.

 

The ducks made an appearance, too.

And the sunset was amazing.

When we arrived home, the bees were visiting the crabapple blooms

and the columbine was budding.

This morning, I was greeted with a beautiful bloom and the sight of many more buds.  The columbine is one of the first plants that I started from seed, and it gives me extra joy to see them bloom.

The penstemon is standing tall and budding while the thyme is covered in tiny white blooms.

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Hosta is poking out of the ground in some spots and well on its way above ground in others.

So much to enjoy now, and so much to look forward to (with my new gardening companion by my side)!!

Coming at you at breakneck speed!

The growth in the garden over the last week seems to have been at the rate of "mile-a-minute" kudzu.  The buds of the azaleas swelled and began to burst open almost overnight.

The daffodils have been blooming for several weeks, but new blooms are still opening.

A rosebud begins to form in the morning light.

The coreopsis bloom unfurls.

Reliable dianthus, my grandson's favorite, will soon provide blooms for numerous little nosegays.

Hosta leaves appear - their shoots rolled tight at first but opening in different shades of green and white.

The shamrock was up in time for St. Patrick's day, but the blooms will come later.

The Chestnut Oak sports its long yellow-green tassels, already dispensing yellow dust over everything.

The changes in the garden that Spring brings will continue at this breakneck speed for a while yet.  I just wish I could check off my garden chores list in half as speedy a fashion!

One hundred and counting

This is my 100th post to Ginny's garden.  I was off to a slow start in 2008, with only 15 posts that year, and only 22 in 2009.  I started my blog in the dead of winter, without anything much to blog about.  I had decided that I needed to keep a garden journal, with pictures and notes to record what I had planted, what worked, and what didn't.  In February my husband brought home some yard art that he had purchased at one of our favorite local shops and that was the subject of my first post - three pictures, a nearly empty garden, and just a few words.  I posted the picture below in the Spring of 2008 when we planted the bed in front of the fence.  The hostas you see in front of the fence had been planted where they received too much hot afternoon sun and needed to be moved. We added some small azaleas, some impatiens, a little Japanese maple, some hellebore, a fern, and a few other things - with plenty of room to grow.

June 2008

In June of 2009 it looked like this

Much to my delight, the impatiens had re-seeded throughout the bed

Last fall we lost all of the shade provided by the trees on the other side of the fence.  I blogged about that here, here, and here and still grieve over it.  We've planted some Carolina Jessamine and are patiently waiting for it to grow along the top of the fence to soften it.  

Now at the end of June in our first season without shade,  the impatiens have once again re-seeded and are growing well where they have shade from shrubs and structure, such as the bench.

Some of the hostas, on the other hand, will have to be moved - they're sunburned already.  I don't know what I'll replace them with.

On the up side, I planted zinnias that I grew from seed just to the right in front of this bench, and they're doing well.  Zinnias are just about the cheeriest flower I can think of.  I've also added brazilian verbena, some mums that will provide color in the fall, some purple verbena.  Sunflower and cosmos seeds have sprouted.  

Meanwhile, impatiens have popped up all around the yard.  I grow them in pots each year on my side steps and they've sprouted in the cracks of the steps.

The brick keeps the roots nice and cool - I don't have to water these much!

I have been learning and growing as I've written these 100 blog posts - growing older but I hope I have also become more humble, patient, and accepting.  (Losing those trees has been my greatest test, and I'm not sure I've passed it yet.) I think the next 100 blog posts will come much more quickly than the first 100 as it's a joy to be able to share what's going on in Ginny's garden with you.

I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them. I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master. I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit. ~Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden, 1909