Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Imperfectly Beautiful Garden


One of the blogs I just recently began reading (I have a SHAMEFUL obsession with reading blogs...) is The Nesting Place. This week, The Nester challenged her readers to reveal and post about one imperfectly beautiful portion of their home. Unfortunately, during the summertime, I'm aaaaaaallll about the garden, so I'm bending the rules a bit. Instead, you're about to see the very imperfect spots in my garden. Beautiful? Maybe not so much. LOL


Do you see 'em? Between those two Spirea who've only just spent their gorgeous white blossoms. Yeah, those are two dead, dead, dead Spirea. Killed by moi. I tried to transplant them from the backyard to the front to fill in that imperfectly beautiful gap in the hedge. I really thought one of them would make it, since it still had some green before winter set in last year, but alas!


Okay, this one is more obvious. I can't begin to describe the imperfections in this beautiful little garden plot of mine. It was supposed to be bursting with breadseed poppies (Papaver somniferum) by this time. Instead it has a few very wee California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), and cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus). Let's just say I super duper suck at growing poppies of any variety. Y'all see the topsoil runoff onto the sidewalk? How precious. I really don't even know how to prevent that yet, other than to get something to grow there. Not doin' so well on that one. Let's not mention the weed-filled cracks in the walkway...

It's inevitable that when you garden, you will have some failures. This is especially so when you're gardening with edibles. Too much rain, too little rain, early frost, late frost, freak hailstorms, rotten neighbor kids, dog urine, etc, etc, etc can all contribute to a less than stellar crop. The thing is, you have to keep going. Have to remember that all of these spots really are imperfectly beautiful. I get to replace those brown and brittle Spirea with something with some edibility or other use (or, more than likely because of my perfectionist nature, more Spirea) and I have a kickass plan for a purple herb garden in the plot of dirt next year. Maybe even a columnar apple tree or two...

14 comments:

The Nester said...

The first think I noticed was your HUGE front porch--LUCKY!

No rules, remember--so you are totally not gonna get in any trouble for writing about your garden! It's my first time here but, I think I could learn a thing or two from you.

I love that you see the fact that your seeds didn't take and your transplants died as an opportunity to plant something else!

It's gonna look great and I would love to have your yard with its mature shrub!

Thanks for posting!

Sarah Mae said...

I really what you picked, because it's kind of like life. We expect one thing, but sometimes we get another that may not looko so beautiful to others, but we know what's under it all.

I hope you post pics when you get something growing! :)

Marianne said...

Oh yeah my garden is full of imperfections too. Tumbled over flowers, not yet deadheaded blooms, weeds growing, plants growing in the wrong places (while it seemed such a good idea to plant them there). I am with you. But the beauty of a garden (or pretty much anything else) is that it is patient, you can always do it differently next year.

Kimba said...

I love seeing pictures of other people's gardens. I love to fiddle around outside also and I've killed more plants than I care to admit. As a matter of fact, I've got a spirea in my backyard right now that I fear is breathing it's last breath.

Blogger said...

Weeds in the cracks are practical though...they keep folks from tripping on the cracks ;) I always marvel at how weeds can grow ANYWHERE...even under my son's sandbox..there are a FEW molecules of sand spilt down there and yep, little green shoots are growing out of them, it cracks me up...get it....cracks? ;)

frillsfluffandtrucks said...

Oh man, if I took pictures of my garden imperfections we'd be here all day! :)

~ Sarah

Heathahlee said...

At least you try. I'm too lazy to get out there and weed, so my "garden" is a bunch of weeds with one beatiful daylily gracing us with its presence. :)

Anonymous said...

I see a beautiful garden here one day. Enjoy those babies on that porch. They wont stay little long, Susie H

Darla said...

Oh we have a couple spots that are plain dirt too. Don't despair (that's what everone tells me LOL LOL).

Nancy said...

I'm impressed that you can even go outside in the heat to garden! I didn't know you could kill spirea - I used to have a hedge in a different house and it almost took over the neighborhood. I think you have to neglect it for it to thrive and good for you seeing new opportunities instead of failure. xoxo Nancy

angela | the painted house said...

I love to get out in the yard, too. Not always successful either--but it is all a learning experience, right?

Jane said...

Big props for trying! I killed some things a few years back and pretty much gave up! I need to try again!

Bonita said...

I'm glad to see that someone else posted about a garden. I did too! I'm right there with you on the gardening woes.

Kitty Scraps said...

I'm in constant amazement at people who can grow things and make beauty outside in their yards. Mine is the pits! So I admire all your efforts and I'm sure in no time you'll have those little areas beautiful once again.