A Young Garden

When I moved into my house the backyard was.......hmmmm......how to put this politely? A shell, yes we'll call it a shell. There were two dogwoods near the deck, the odd tulip, and a walkway back to the shed. I immediately envisioned a lush English garden where I would sip coffee in the morning and read the newspaper. This was four years ago, people still read newspapers.

Unfortunately, the backyard was pretty much last on the list so I just got around to tackling it about a year and a half ago. Knowing that my utter lack of agricultural knowledge would end up making the project even more expensive because I'd have to re-plant everything I killed, I had someone help me pick things out and do the planting. Well, basically I showed him a picture and said this is what I want. I came home the day it was finished and was amazed by the transformation. There was mulch! There were plants and bushes! There were flowers! But they were all pretty tiny. Huh? Where was the lush English garden I'd asked for? Why wasn't everything luxuriously full like in the picture? My landscaper reminded me that everything would grow. Gardens take time.

Sure, sure.... time blah, blah, blah......surely we can speed this up. You should have seen me. I would walk out back and just stare at the plants; certain that by shear mental energy, bribery, or grovelling I could make them transform. Please?! Pretty please with cherries on top?! GROW! But you, dear reader (who are far more perceptive than I), already know he was right. Little by little things actually did grow. I wanted too much too soon you see, and though I still have quite a way to go, my garden has taught me the power of patience. I realized that like all great relationships, we had to get to know each other first.

The purple droopy flowers (I told you I don't know anything about plants) where happy as clams where they were. They laughed in sheer jest at the rest of the garden as they grew robust and full. The azaleas were independent and self-sufficient, best left alone to their own devices. The boxwoods wanted to break up pure and simple. I said let's go to couples therapy....take a great vacation...institute date night??? Finally I came to the realization that they just weren't that into me and we parted ways amicably.

Is every square inch the way I want it? No. But it will be. The garden and I have found a compromise between what I wanted and what the space would allow. We're still a few years away from full maturity but this spring I can finally see what it will look like in the end. I won't lie, mornings out back with my coffee and book in hand are pretty awesome. What happened to the newspaper you ask? The garden literally repels technology so my newspaper-reading dream will never materialize because I caved and do check the news mostly on my computer or phone. I absolutely refuse to read a book on an electronic device though so the garden accepts them gladly. But check back in a few years I'll probably have caved in that area too:).

Here's some fun pics as well from a previous post of my beloved second-hand chiminea on the patio.