"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive."
~ Eleonora Duse ~
A little patch of borage that I plant all
over my garden. Miraculous blue stars that
capture my heart with their simple beauty...
I am a garden writer and photographer and I have designed many a garden. I planted 100 roses in one garden and 60 in the next. I have planted many many kinds of perennials, annuals, plants in pots and plants from seed. Flowering bushes and small trees that will one day grow large, far up in the sky. The borage above grows easily from seed. I am constantly reading and studying. Holding tiny seeds, knowing that they will grow into great flowers, is one of the greatest joys ever. Here is a picture from a few years back when I planted all kinds of sunflowers in a vast array of colors, and many of them, like my hollyhocks, grew taller than me...
I grow organically and one of the great delights of spring is to order containers full of lady bugs and pods of praying mantis that will hatch. Gardener's friends, and soil friendly too. I also buy several containers of live worms to put into the soil. They will eat their way through soil making it more friable, leaving waste in the soil that is nutritious for the soil. When you live in the small things of the world, even the tiny, you are rewarded many times over with a glory unknown in this big, big world.
Small things that touch the heart and make one glad to be alive...
I am a very serious wisteria wrangler. I love them all out of proportion and covet them in a most unseemly way. Driving home from errands yesterday I saw several stands of wisteria that will be wonderful pickins in the dusky darkness. I never gather anything from anyone's garden, an abomination to be sure, the wisteria I cut are wild grown in little patches on the side of the road, long forgotten, in country spots whose owners are long gone, the house in a pile of ruins, and the enchanting wisteria taking over a large area. I bring home arms of wisteria that perfume the whole cottage. This is the season of wisteria. This is some I cut two or three years ago, not long ago, with a pruner in one hand and Big Dog Moe on a leash walking with me...
A small and tender thing...
Yesterday, while doing my errands, getting into my sweet old van and sitting outside the post office for a moment before leaving, I saw an elderly woman go just around the corner of the building with a small bag of cat food. She bent slowly and took handfuls of cat food and put them, here and there along the wall and the fence opposite. Then she walked ever so slowly back to her car and drove off. One of those little grandmotherly type people in an old car whose head one could barely see above the spinning wheel. She was feeding the feral cats. I spoke to her and told her what a lovely thing that was to do. She said she'd been doing it for years, feeding feral cats, that someone had to feed the little ones.
I drove home feeling blessed and renewed. There are so many wondrous things around us all the time, if only we have eyes to see. I hope I have that tender spirit and will perform those small kind acts all the days of my life. I do little things all the time that go unnoticed. Perhaps that is the greatest joy of all...
~ Eleonora Duse ~
A little patch of borage that I plant all
over my garden. Miraculous blue stars that
capture my heart with their simple beauty...
I am a garden writer and photographer and I have designed many a garden. I planted 100 roses in one garden and 60 in the next. I have planted many many kinds of perennials, annuals, plants in pots and plants from seed. Flowering bushes and small trees that will one day grow large, far up in the sky. The borage above grows easily from seed. I am constantly reading and studying. Holding tiny seeds, knowing that they will grow into great flowers, is one of the greatest joys ever. Here is a picture from a few years back when I planted all kinds of sunflowers in a vast array of colors, and many of them, like my hollyhocks, grew taller than me...
I grow organically and one of the great delights of spring is to order containers full of lady bugs and pods of praying mantis that will hatch. Gardener's friends, and soil friendly too. I also buy several containers of live worms to put into the soil. They will eat their way through soil making it more friable, leaving waste in the soil that is nutritious for the soil. When you live in the small things of the world, even the tiny, you are rewarded many times over with a glory unknown in this big, big world.
Small things that touch the heart and make one glad to be alive...
I am a very serious wisteria wrangler. I love them all out of proportion and covet them in a most unseemly way. Driving home from errands yesterday I saw several stands of wisteria that will be wonderful pickins in the dusky darkness. I never gather anything from anyone's garden, an abomination to be sure, the wisteria I cut are wild grown in little patches on the side of the road, long forgotten, in country spots whose owners are long gone, the house in a pile of ruins, and the enchanting wisteria taking over a large area. I bring home arms of wisteria that perfume the whole cottage. This is the season of wisteria. This is some I cut two or three years ago, not long ago, with a pruner in one hand and Big Dog Moe on a leash walking with me...
A small and tender thing...
Yesterday, while doing my errands, getting into my sweet old van and sitting outside the post office for a moment before leaving, I saw an elderly woman go just around the corner of the building with a small bag of cat food. She bent slowly and took handfuls of cat food and put them, here and there along the wall and the fence opposite. Then she walked ever so slowly back to her car and drove off. One of those little grandmotherly type people in an old car whose head one could barely see above the spinning wheel. She was feeding the feral cats. I spoke to her and told her what a lovely thing that was to do. She said she'd been doing it for years, feeding feral cats, that someone had to feed the little ones.
I drove home feeling blessed and renewed. There are so many wondrous things around us all the time, if only we have eyes to see. I hope I have that tender spirit and will perform those small kind acts all the days of my life. I do little things all the time that go unnoticed. Perhaps that is the greatest joy of all...
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I'm always happy to find a fellow gardener and read about their experiences. Borage is one herb I haven grown so will put it on my list of new herbs to grow this year. I have experimented with growing various sunflowers from the giants to the miniatures. I even grew a green sunflower that was quite pretty.
Take care and happy gardening
gardengnome1 on twitter
I loved the story of the old lady feeding the feral cats, it is such a shame that these lovely animals have to live this way.Thank God there are people like this wonderful lady that have it in their hearts to do this wonderful service to them.
I love reading your blog, it is always so uplifting.
Many Blessings
Holly