NOT SO SECRET GARDEN

"I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but IN the garden." -Frances Hodgson Burnett ( 1849-1924)

 Well, not exactly the secret garden from the book,  but  it's my little oasis.

 And it's booming.

 Dragons blood, anenome, climbing hydrangea,  sedums, have taken over the wall.

 Verbeena, Rhubarb, Cranesbill (lots and lots and LOTS  of Cranesbill)

 Geraniums everywhere, all starting to flower, and roses, just beginning....

"I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense to get hold of it and make it do things for us...."
                                                 -Burnett ( The Secret Garden 1911) 

 Alchemilla ( Lady's Mantle) at first light, drenched in the rain.

 Busy bees. Feeding off the Cranesbill. Their bodies carrying  orange pollen.

 Abraham Lincoln Rose. 

 The Verbascum ( considered a huge weed by some) is Massive already. It will make giant sunflower stalks that the bees will sleep in.

 "If you look, you can see right away that the whole world is a garden..." -Secret garden 1911

 Mauve Perennial Geranium

 And lots of bees. BUZZ. This is good.

 Maidenhair Fern. I thought it was dead. It's GIGANTIC. 

 Rain on it and it will come back.

"And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles...." -Secret  Garden 1911 

 And of course, it helps to  have Spencer  snoozing at the entrance......he blooms and blooms in the sun on the gate.

Photographs 2020

We Knew it Would Rain.....

                              End of the day, yesterday, no rain in sight.  Everything parched. Yellowing.
                                                        Have never seen it like this. But I knew it would rain.....

 Then overnight, it started to pour. By morning , bees were hanging upside down. Snoozing.I wonder if they had started to sleep before the rain.

                                          BEFORE THE RAIN ( T. B. Aldrich 1836-1907)
"We knew it would rain, for all the morn a spirit on slender ropes of mist was lowering its golden buckets down into the vapory amethyst."

             "Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens, scooping the dew that lay in the flowers."

                 By late morning it was still raining.

                        "Dipping the jewels out of the sea, to sprinkle them over the land in showers."

                                                And the bees kept snoring.

                                                  And snoring.

           While the Inula leaned.               And Smokey wondered what he should do.....

            "We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed.The white of their leaves, the amber grain, shrunk in the wind, and the lightning now, is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain."

         With Spencer on the porch. His own snoozefest interupted by splooshing rain on cement.

         Spencer dislikes the rain. He hates getting his paws wet. And he  still had to get home to his house on the hill. Through the puddles and the slugs.

                            So I picked sweet peas in the rain.

           The anenome raised up off the dry ground.

                    And it started looking like Christmas  in July.
 
                    When the rain came. And the drought ended.

       

   And Spencer high tailed it to the greenhouse. To wait out the rain. Before heading for home. In the rain  that he so does not like. But I could have sworn I saw him flick his paws and do a little dance, when the rain came.
(Poem "Before the Rain" (by Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836-1907) Poet, novelist, travel writer and editor. His novel "Story of a Bad Boy" apparently paved the way for other novelists.)

CAT PLANTING

 There are many types of planting in the garden.Cat Planting takes little or no fertilizer. They bring their own.  The most obvious is the rare "Cat's Ears". Soft to the touch and requiring little watering. In fact, it doesn't like a lot of water....

 The next type of rare plant is one for the greenhouse.  The "White Cat" grows best in greenhosue environments. Unlike the "Cat's Ears" , it relishes in water and likes to grow alongside ferns.

 

                              

         Baskets stuffed with impatiens  and begonias do best in partial shady environments.

                 While the huge, dinner plate Poppy, does best on a hill overlooking the mountains.
 
                      At times, the "White Cat" variety  can be found growing freely, along with the sedums, rock cress, and Dragonsblood. It tends to be a sleepy variety, known to be resistent to bugs.

             If left on it's own " Cat's Ears" will grow into a golden furball, reminiscent of the pussy willow, it's second cousin. It has this rare, wonderful quality where it will purr when spoken to.

                                                      

Planting Sweet Peas  in various places around the garden, will have no effect on the cat plantings.

It seems that they all can live harmoniously together. Though at times, the Cat plantings tend to uproot themselves and come have a look in doors.

Sometimes they will group themselves together. Strength in numbers and all that sort of thing.

             
  But then the rain will start again....especially during the rainy season..................

                                             

 When the rain is pouring off the roof...............

 Into the pots, over the porch................
          
 And into the garden beds ....................

 The Cat Plantings will stir themselves once again . And will leave their warm pavement, to return once again to their roots in the garden, settling themselves into the dirt, for a long wait, a snooze, a chance to be one with the flowers once more.

                                

 And they will watch the sunset, and marvel at the world, before heading for home, to start their day yet again............... tomorrow.