Out of the Rabbit Hole and Into the Garden

...the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning... ~Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, 1968

(Lily flowered tulips)

Spring, the great motivator, launched me into action and has me sowing dozens of flowers, sweet peppers, basil, tomato seeds, potting up dahlias (to give them a head start), digging holes for roses and scouring the garden for spots to plant the ten new ones I ordered. I'm adding two varieties of dwarf delphiniums, and salvia, violas, peach colored hollyhocks...I started from seed. More catmint, hardy geraniums, Oriental lilies, clematis, and lavender have gone into the Memorial Garden, or soon will. And the list goes on of roses, bulbs, and plants I've specially ordered or started from seed. I'm also putting in a salad/vegetable garden. It's downsized from before but will still produce plenty of greens and veges. Mixing flowers with vegetables and herbs is a favorite of mine and is good for attracting beneficials to the garden. I'm sprinkling seed around like a flower fairy. 

Yes, I get quite tired, but after a good rest I return to the garden, digging, planting, dividing clumps of asters and phlox and, and. It's truly a magical place, apart from our crazy spring weather that seems bent on wreaking havoc. After several days of ridiculously warm days, we're windswept with a cold bluster and threated wih frost. This is a recurring garden challenge in the Shenandoah Valley in spring.

I've gardened forever, but my endeavors really took off when I decided to create the Memorial Garden after my dad and younger brother, Chad, died. This living memorial is also for my mother-in-law whose garden this was before me and who passed soon after my father. I got really serious about taking care of my plants and went stark rose mad. Once you catch rose madness, there's no return, so take care. I'm now committed to caring for dozens of roses with more on the way. Can you have too many bulbs or roses? Nae. I'm also taken with Oriental lilies...

Stay tuned.

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King...
~Emily Dickinson

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~George Bernard Shaw

"My little bit of earth in the front garden is one of the places that I find my bearings. The rhythm of my day begins with a cup of coffee and a little bit of weeding or dreaming." ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, www.wildthymecreative.com

(Foxglove and roses in my Memorial Garden)

Living on a farm allows me more than a bit of earth, but the garden is also where I find my bearings. As much as I savor fresh fruits and vegetables, it's the flowers that feed my soul. Beds dating back to my late mother-in-law's day wrap this old white farm house and flow along the side of the road where drivers roar past. The road wasn't such a menace in Mom Trissel's time. Now, it's 'gardener beware'. I've reeled back more than once while working in that bed when a driver zoomed by alarmingly close. I have this crazy hope they will slow down to admire the flowers. Plus the barnyard geese graze in my front yard and sometimes wander near the road. We have about two dozen squawky Pilgrim geese. We'd have even more but they aren't great parents and often misplace goslings. We've rescued some babies but can only do so much. It's a running joke about the geese hating me, while not minding Hubby Dennis or daughter Elise. I think it's because I clap and shout to get them away from the road and out of my yard. In addition to grass they graze on my plants, like phlox and bee balm. Tender lettuce is also a favorite but the vegetable plot is fenced in. Pic of goose with the monarch was taken last summer. Those are tithonia flowers the butterflies love.

Below are Shirley Poppies, Larkspur, yellow evening primrose, roses, iris, yellow coreopsis, and blue Love in the Mist blooming now in that massive bed along the road. A giant old-fashioned rose commands the far corner. This sea of color overflows with wildflowers, perennials, heirloom flowers, roses, and herbs. The abundant plants are so thick there is little need for mulch. It's my living barrier to that beastly road. Grandchildren also play in the yard, but on this side of the border. The kids love to explore the many beds that comprise my garden, but they aren't allowed to stick a toe in that one. Only I risk life and limb.

I've whittled down the vegetable plot over the years and expanded Mom Trissel's flower beds while adding others. Herbs and blossoms surround my vegetable garden and mingle with the edibles. Drifts of wildflowers I seeded in April are lush with promise but I've knocked myself out dragging the hose around during dry spells. Blooms fill our small back garden from the white snowdrops in late winter to pink Queen Charlotte anemone in late summer. I watch from the kitchen window as feathered friends visit the bird feeder and hummers dart. Because this garden is enclosed by a wall, I can only expand it so far. Aggressive plants like fragrant Egyptian mint and Queen Anne's Lace have taken too much ground, though both are beautiful. The mint should have been planted in a pot but I didn't know that thirty years ago. Battling mint is an ongoing struggle and I must thin Queen Anne's Lace. Iris and Dame's Rocket (below) are finishing up for this season, as are Mom Trissel's peonies. I moved some of her peonies and iris to the kitchen and Memorial gardens. My dear grandmother gave me this white iris years ago.

Dear to my heart is the expansive Memorial Garden I've labored in since late February. Not only have I worked there every day the weather permitted, but often when it didn't. Cold wind blasted me in my scarf and multiple layers. Raw drizzle misted my face and chilled my muddy gloved fingers. In the early days, if temps hit the upper forties, I headed out the door. Fifties was a heat wave. Sometimes I waited until mid-day for the ground to thaw enough to dig. Everything was brown and depressing at first, apart from emerging daffodils. The only beauty lay in my vision of what could be. But I was bent on digging out wild asters that had overrun this enormous bed and creating a glorious site. I still dig tenacious roots out daily, but I've left some asters growing along the fence. They are butterfly magnets. The colorful mounds, some reaching over six feet tall, flutter and buzz with life in late summer. If I'm not careful, though, that's all I'll have. And I badly needed a goal and physical work this spring.

(Me digging aster roots. Hubby took pics when I didn't realize)

I spent hours crawling around in the bleak cold getting out roots. See the tiny plant surrounded by stones? It's a poor little rose that got lost in the asters, much happier since its rescue. Asters pictured below.

"Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it." ~Author Unknown (Truth! My back ached terribly in those first days,not much now.)

"I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me." ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

The garden has, indeed, cared for me. My father's passing in late December, only a year and a half after my brother Chad's death, left me overwhelmed with grief. Then my mother-in-law died. The Memorial bed is also for her. All the digging, clean up, planting, mulching, path making, and ongoing planning for what to put in where has given me a much needed focus. Writing eluded me as I never thought it would. But nature hasn't. And Lord knows the seed catalogues and online garden sites are there for me. Local ones, too. I have discovered some wonderful gardeners through the world of YouTube. My favorite is artist Jeri Landers. the Storybook Gardener, who has been of much comfort and inspiration. I love her creativity and gardening style and avidly follow her YouTube channel. 

Like Jeri, I would describe my garden as cottage, country, with native plants. I'm not in the least formal. In one video, Jeri suggested finding an unsightly--even ugly--corner and making it beautiful. So I tackled the kitchen garden, another bed ruled by an overreaching plant, Bishop's Weed. It was a hard slog, but I am delighted with the transformation. Then I took on a third bed overrun with a different kind of wild aster, and so on...You see the pattern here. I worked until I dropped, but it helped lift my spirits. 

Jeri raised stunning foxglove from seed this year, while I bought plants, so guess what seed I ordered yesterday...plus, plus. I have a little greenhouse Dennis built for me eons ago, but it relies on solar heat. Too often seeds I sow in spring don't germinate, even with a heating mat. I like Jeri's idea of starting some of the hardy flowers in summer and wintering them over to bloom next year.

My most enticing plant lure are roses. At last count, I've moved four from various corners of the yard where they weren't thriving to join five existing roses in my Memorial Garden. Two more roses were given to me, and I've purchased fourteen. So far. You can't have a remembrance garden without the queen of flowers. Most came from English rose breeder David Austin and Jackson and Perkins. (J and P had a super sale this past week.) Several roses spilled into my newly reclaimed kitchen garden. I eagerly await those that have not yet bloomed. Among my new Memorial Garden additions are delphiniums, various buddleias, oriental lilies, gladiolas, hollyhocks, sweet William, iris, peonies, hardy geraniums, dianthus, bellflowers, less aggressive perennial asters and an annual aster, heuchera (coral bells) Lady's Mantle, phlox, yarrow, saliva, rudbeckia, violas, columbine, different varieties of poppies, foxglove, lupins, verbena, catmint, sweet alyssum, lavender, chamomile, lemon marigolds... I'm still adding. Pics below from emerging blooms in that garden: roses, nepeta (catmint) miniature delphinium and violas. I started violas and alyssum from seed.

Carding Mill -- David Austen Rose

Grief has its own timetable, with unpredictable ups and downs, as uncontrollable as the tide. I'm slowly finding my way, but know the sadness will never fully leave me. I already knew this from past grief, but never quite so sharply. I'm blessed with a close loving family and dear friends. They are my lifelines. I hope to find my way back to writing. This is the most I've written in months and it hasn't been easy, but cathartic. For me, gardening is a vital part of healing. At some point, I will add a plaque, statue, or remembrance stone to the Memorial garden. Maybe all three. It's a work in progress. 

"I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation." ~Phyllis Theroux

My Memorial Garden

I've crawled from the garden to share my quest of turning a large flower border into a memorial garden in memory of my dear father, my brother Chad, and my mother-in-law (Nana). Each of them were avid gardeners, and Nana gardened here before me. I don't have lovely images to share yet because the glorious cottage style garden I'm envisioning hasn't yet come to life. Mostly, I'm looking at bare earth I've labored days in, digging out wild aster roots that spread far and wide. Several roses already reside in this border, but were overwhelmed by asters and will grow more happily now that I've dug out bushel basketfuls of roots.

Hubby Dennis even brought in his tractor loader and we heaped it twice for him to haul away a giant pile of roots. Exhausting. Especially as I spent the winter in slug mode and have to get back into gardening shape.

 I've planted seven more roses, three of which I dug up and moved from other corners of the yard. The new ones I've added are from the wonderful English rose breeder David Austin and Jackson and Perkins, who always send me quality plants. Four more roses from J and P are coming to make twelve new additions. Roses are the star flower in my sentimental border, but planting and caring for them is a lot of work. They're worth it, though.

My garage is filling with boxes from plant companies, and more deliveries are assured. If I don't keep up with planting, I will be buried under them. It's possible I went a little crazy, but as my gardening hero, English gardener Monty Donn, says, If you're undertaking a big venture, go mad. Or words to that effect. And I have.

I'm including my favorite flowers, blue delphiniums, dianthus, peonies, foxgloves, coral bells, lilies, bellflowers, salvias, phlox, lavender, improved asters, poppies... Many old-fashioned herbs and flowers will fill this bed, interspersed with the roses. I've started sweet alyssum, violas, and forget-me-nots in my little green house that will be soon be planted. A solar angel (on the whimsical side) will go into the bed when there's more growth for her to watch over. Her wings are supposed to glow in the dark. I'm on the prowl for a solar fountain.

I've ordered special compost from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm for the flowers and daughter Elise gave me worms from Uncle Jim's so I can make my own. I've set up a little worm corner for them.

Dad's death, on top of my brother Chad's, hit me hard, and my father and mother-in-law died on either side of Dad. I know they're all in a better place, but it's still very difficult. I'm battling anxiety and depression. Writing is a struggle. But creating this memorial garden brings me comfort. There is much healing to be found digging in the earth.

One of the gardening shows that inspires me is Big Dreams, Small Spaces with Monty Donn. I highly recommend it. I also like Gardener's World with Monty. You're probably noting a pattern here. British gardening programs with Monty Donn, but the Brits have a love of gardening that goes beyond most Americans. I have much in common with them. As my garden grows, I will share images. For now, I'm sharing spring pics from other parts of the garden.

"If you've never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden." ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

For more on my work, visit my Amazon Author Page. Proceeds from book sales go toward my memorial garden.

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

(English Cottage Garden)

In midwinter my thoughts turn to gardening, of course. Ever wonder about the history behind these cherished plots of earth? Cottage gardens stretch back hundreds of years to the time when people used herbs for everything and grew most of their own food. These homey plots acquired their name from the country cottage around which they grew. I love cottage gardens and strive to have my own. However, I live in a boxy white farm house, not a cottage, and our yard and gardens are rather sprawling for that overflowing, filled to the brim, in a compact sort of way look. Like mine, these small gardens are (and were) a mix of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. I strongly associate cottage gardens with the British Isles, because of our shared history and the influence of the Mother Country on the New World. But other countries have them too.

(Bee on catnip flower with our farm house in the background)

(Heirloom poppies)

(Bees on poppies)

"No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden." ~Hugh Johnson

People acquired the plants for their cottage gardens from friends and family in the form of ‘starts’ (root divisions) cuttings, and seeds. Very much as I do today, only I have the added benefit of seed catalogs. They are called passalong plants. Sometimes these gifts of plant starts to others have come back to me when my own died out.  Thank heavens, I'm generous. If I gave any of you lupines, I would like some back now. :) I'm also a big fan of wildflowers.

(The front flower border in our garden)

Daughter Elise (my right arm in the garden) and I encourage beneficial insects to make their home among our plants. We are discovering which herbs and flowers, etc, are best for attracting pollinators, and we continually experiment with companion planting. It's as much a happy accident as intentional, but we grow a wide variety of flowers so that pollen sources are available throughout the growing season. We've learned that heirloom, non hybrid flowers and vegetables are best for attracting butterflies, beneficial insects, and bees... As it turns out, these are the kind that make up traditional cottage gardens. Those new and improved varieties may look more attractive to us, but not to the pollinators. Butterflies give them a pass. Elise and I noted this with the 'Wave' petunias we got from a garden center. Not a single butterfly or bee paid any attention to those prolific blooms. 

 A few pics from our garden this past summer and some of our visitors.

(Painted Lady butterfly on Agastache flowers)

(Hairstreak butterfly on asters)

(Bee on Tithonia)

(Butterfly On Forget-Me-Nots)

(Monarch visiting Bright Lights Cosmos)

Also, watch out for plants from garden centers that have been treated with systemic insecticides called neonicotinyl insecticides. You will unintentionally kill nectar seeking visitors with those flowers. For more on avoiding these killer flowers visit:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/plant-nursery-health/protecting-bees-beneficial-insects-systemic-insecticides/

"It was such a pleasure to sink one's hands into the warm earth, to feel at one's fingertips the possibilities of the new season." ~Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

If you are in an herb growing mood and want to learn more of their lore and historic uses, I am pushing my herbal, Plants for A Medieval Herb Garden in the British Isles: 

An illustrated collection of plants that could have been grown in a Medieval Herb or Physic Garden in the British Isles. The major focus of this work is England and Scotland, but also touches on Ireland and Wales. Information is given as to the historic medicinal uses of these plants and the rich lore surrounding them. Journey back to the days when herbs figured into every facet of life, offering relief from the ills of this realm and protection from evil in all its guises.

Available in kindle and print at Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/Plants-Medieval-Garden-British-Isles-ebook/dp/B00IOGHYVU

You can't go wrong with herbs.

For more on me, follow my Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Beth-Trissel/e/B002BLLAJ6/