Category Archives: my garden

Why it is never finished.

beauty, my garden, quotes, ,
2016

“Obviously a garden is not the wilderness but an assembly of shapes, most of them living, that owes some share of its composition, its appearance, to human design and effort, human conventions and convenience, and the human pursuit of that elusive, indefinable harmony that we call beauty. It has a life of its own, an intricate, willful, secret life, as any gardener knows. It is only the humans in it who think of it as a garden. But a garden is a relationship, which is one of the countless reasons why it is never finished.”

-W.S. Merwin

2022

Decorating for Palm Sunday.

church, Holy Week, my garden, other gardens, , , , ,

This morning, right after Divine Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday, lots of people immediately got to work decorating for Palm Sunday, which for Orthodox Christians is tomorrow. Others of us stood around in the divine sunshine chatting before we went home to get ready for the next of our string of services, 16 between now and Pascha night. (No, no one can go to all of them.)

(In the photos above, the triangle of white in the lower right is some papers that I was holding in front of my phone without realizing it.)

One friend took my arm and steered me to her car where she had a basket of spicy buns she had specially designed and baked for the celebration. They were in the shape of a body with two cloves for eyes, and bands wrapped around his middle (I immediately thought back to the Gospel reading we had just heard, in Lazarus comes out of the tomb still bound up with graveclothes), and they were still warm from the oven. Yum. The sun shone on us, divinely. The welcome, welcome sun.

I didn’t get a picture of the little Lazarus buns, but I did get close to these trees that I had no memory of seeing before. The rose-like blooms hang down large and lovely, like clusters of bells. My Seek app says they are Japanese Cherry Trees. And no wonder the flowers look like roses, as the trees are, like so many fruit trees and bushes, in the Rose family.

Then, it was time for me to go, fortified by holy bread and Lazarus bread, to a tax appointment. Well, the woman who helps me is very nice, and likes to hear about my church. So even that part of the day was blessed.

When I was finally home and adding water to the fountain, I marveled at the sun-infused pomegranate bushes… and the Dutchman’s Pipe flowers… and the way so many plants have grown taller than usual with the very wet winter they’ve enjoyed, and their flower stalks are majestic, even the ones that haven’t opened their blooms yet.

My particular Dutchman’s Pipe is a California native. This evening when I sniffed at the flowers again, I still could not detect any scent; I’ve been waiting for them to live up to their reputation of being stinky. So I did a little research and some people say that the North American species do not have a scent. Hmm… I wonder how the butterflies and pollinating gnats will find them?

I don’t remember what this flower is, but about fifty plants self-seeded into this pot and now are brightening the patio enthusiastically. It appears to be a spring day all around.

The tarragon is winning.

food and cooking, my garden, weather, , , ,

This morning I read that we had got two inches of rain in the last 24 hours. It’s the Atmospheric River again! When I took out the trash, I discovered that the lid to the can had blown open, and the bin was half full of water. I was very glad that there was no trash in there swimming around.

The first asparagus came up this week, and the first freesia this morning. We have one day, today, with no rain, but it’s coming back, they say; the River might run for four more days.

I finally peeled, chopped and cooked the last of my little pumpkins that I’d grown last summer. I had saved seeds in 2021 from what looked like a mere ornamental pumpkin bought at Trader Joe’s for a front porch decoration, but after eating all the larger ornaments, I didn’t want to waste that little guy, so I cooked him, too. He was the sweetest of all! It was really satisfying to get descendants from him.

When I was at church during a short spell of sunshine this week, I saw this quince bush (above) with an unusual color of blooms.  So far none of my seeds have sprouted; they must be waiting for more warmth. But the tarragon has come out of dormancy and is overtaking the hairy bittercress that’s invaded its pot. Go, tarragon!