From A New Garden

Friday, June 03, 2016

June 3, 2016

I just came in from working in the garden. I have a fine layer of dirt on my face, one wet knee, and the sore spot I get between my shoulders from stooping is talking to me again. This morning seemed like the perfect time to check my plants, do some weeding, and set the sprinkler up. I filled a little bucket with a few weeds and worked a little bit more on clearing out the clumps of dead grass that are along the edge of the garden.

My work out there started about a month ago. I began the way I always do, sitting in my chair dreaming about what should go where. Making that decision is the hardest part. When the weeds started popping up, I took a hoe to them and knew that it was time to get a few steak knives and a bucket of some kind. Now, with bucket and knife, I go out about once a week or so to collect any weeds that I see.

In the meantime, I've been leveling out the soil and planting. I'm still trying to figure out what will go where, but so far, I've planted zinnias, cucumbers, chives, and peas. I have four cuttings of mint in a vase of water on the kitchen counter so that they will send out some roots. I've filled the window boxes with petunia seeds and the old barrel planter with a packet of wildflower seeds. I'm looking forward to going over to Suzanne's to learn more about gardening in this area. She's promised me some herb starts and I think those will do well in the little raised bed.

There's a big hole in the very middle of the garden and everyone keeps asking me when I'm going to fill it in. I haven't filled it in yet and I don't know what I'm waiting for. I'll get around to it eventually. Maybe when I decide what should go there. I've hauled my two little watering cans, my small metal table, my fencing trellises, and my garden markers here from my garden at the other house. The watering cans and table have homes in this new garden now and my sister helped me set up one of the trellises. And it's actually starting to look like a garden.

Every week, something new turns up reminding me of the people who tended this yard before me. There were tulips and pansies and some phlox. Now the snapdragons and a white rose bush and a plant I can't identify are doing their thing. The leftovers of last year's alyssum that came up in the window box outside my bedroom started blooming this week.

It's June and gardening season is here. They don't feel like "my" garden or "my" yard yet, but I expect that they will pretty soon.

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