A daily practice of a little garden tour with a cup of coffee in hand. That’s one of the small pleasures of warmer weather around here. Very small … it takes about fifteen steps to see the whole space. But now that it’s had a little time to come back to life, and the remnants of winter have been tidied up, it’s time to add some new things. So what’s new in the garden right now?
Fix the environment
Added a new layer of soil, some compost. Fixed the supports for the clematis. Got the planters out of storage and filled them with fresh soil.
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer
Replace what’s been lost
This winter we had one half of a huge tree come down in a windstorm, and it left a huge space in the canopy (“a lot of connected branches”) above our neighbourhood. A strong canopy is important to the health of urban areas. Source. Technically, the tree was on the other side of our back fence, but the ecosystem doesn’t know that. So we planted a new tree on our side of the fence. It’s not much but it’s something.
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
Unknown
A couple of plants which are usually the first to come through in the spring, are definitely not coming through. Whilst wandering through the garden centre I came across this beauty: Butterfly Rainbow Marcella Coneflower. It looks exactly like some I had in our previous garden, and loved them. I’m hoping it will do well here too. Also one called Storm Cloud which is intriguing. The blooms are my very favourite colour of flower, and supposedly the pollinators will like it too.
Invest in the future
Herbs … a variety … and tomatoes … San Marzano and a few kinds of minis. These are what get planted in my containers. Future us will be happy with our tomato sandwiches, fresh basil in our pasta, tabbouleh salad and mojitos.
P.S. A short gardening playlist.
P.P.S. There are orioles in our neighbourhood this week and they have the prettiest song.
