Amateur Gardening

 

 

In my spare time, I fancy myself a gardener.  In my imagination, I can create gardens to compete with Monet's at Giverny or those at Hampton Court Palace.  In reality, I'm thrilled when plants survive the combination of harsh conditions and lack of attention to which I subject them.  This season's successes are pictured below:



I had never heard of gazania before I bought a three pack at our local garden center the first year we were in this house.  I bought them solely because I liked how they looked, but they're fabulous in a multi-purpose way. They are one of the few plants which seem to thrive on the south facing desert-like conditions of this front garden.  This year, I filled the space with them, in a variety of cheerful colors.



These roses love it here, which is great since I do very little to nurture them except spray them to keep the deer from eating them.  Right in front of the huge bay window.  They very boldly and carefully eat the leaves and leave the stems and thorns.

The zinnias seeded themselves from last year and developed into this enormous clump of orange flowers encroaching on my front walkway.  I'm afraid that if I tried to move them, I'd kill them.  Fortunately that's not a purple mum they're sharing space with.



 

Next year we plan to add a vegetable garden out back, and I'm looking forward to growing some green beans, cucumbers and lots of fresh herbs. We'll then cultivate not only beauty for our eyes, but salad as well!  What better therapy than creating order out of chaos by weeding and designing a garden? 

 

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