God's Gardening

Wild flowers have been a passion of mine for years, and about 7 years ago I had the side yard where grass has never grown well tilled up and went to the local farm store for seeds that were normal for the wild flowers found in the West Michigan area.  The first spring of my new garden I had a bevy of annuals and the beginnings of a few cone flowers which are perennials wildflowers known here along the roadsides and highways.  Each year, I attempted to plant more seeds.  And each fall after that I especially gathered along the wooded areas two of my favorites, the milkweed and Queen Anne's Lace, and each spring after that I looked for any signs of either flower in the beginnings of each new spring.  Nothing happened.  Needless to say I was frustrated and repeated the action each fall.   It seemed like each spring though the garden grew and throve with each new wild flower I found and added the two I longed for never seemed to set foot among the the others in this garden.

And then last summer two plants I did not recognize surfaced among the many cone flowers and yellow daisies.  As I watched they slowly grew into milkweed and flowered profusely and that year my special garden's aroma was heavenly because of those two additions.

Of course I was please to have the milkweed, but I kept trying with the seeding and this spring was finally rewarded in abundance with the stately Queen Anne's Lace.  They started slowly, and I really needed to water there to keep this dry summer from taking these prizes to help establish these beauties, as well as keep the rest blooming.

In July the flowers bloomed, and are blooming still.  Though the milkweed isn't right now I did have them doing so in early July and now have the most glorious crop of milkweed pods that I hope to share with some of my friends for their gardens.  My special addition to the yard has had a bonus as well.  All kinds of birds from the surrounding neighborhoods come here to ride the long flower stalks, and I also have the monarch caterpillars here and the butterflies, too.


I really feel quite blessed to have been able to watch this small piece of earth develop like this, and though the efforts may have seemed to be all mine, I know that these wonders we call wildflowers are not of my making in this small space I call my wildflower garden.  This summer despite everything it has become a little miracle in our urban setting for me.

A Bit of a Time Out

Springtime is when my disappearing act becomes a common place thing in daily life. I spend hours with grandkids outdoors and begin getting my garden ready for those lovely summer flowers...so please forgive any lapse in my article writing and note making because I'm busy with my green work right now!

Gardening Year Round

The winter is now really here, the Holidays are past, and I am getting my seed and flower catalogs! Even in winter, that gardener in me is searching through my Burpee, Park Seed, and so many more that come through my mailbox every year - sometimes just the pictures get me excited. Each year I find new kinds of flowers to try in my small plot and I love to see the results my experimenting creates.

Depending on the requirements, I find that various plants grow well, while others either fail, or disappear after a year or two. I'm really a perennial kind of person with a few annuals to fill the few empty spaces every year. One year I put in some perennial lupines and that year they were lovely, but they simply died out after that. That can happen sometimes depending on your soil and conditions.

I'm more a person who loves cottage gardens - you know, that random almost wild look that so captivated the Victorian gardeners. Gardens are often the extension of the he or she who does the digging and planting, and that is definitely true of me. I'll enjoy the catalogs, but I do so long for that dirty fingernail experience that comes every spring when winter has passed!

So tomorrow, I will be looking through my mail for more of those precious catalogs, that bring many more ideas for this year's garden. My mom was quite a gardener, and so were my grandmothers on both sides. I truly believe it's in my blood so it is what I write about during winter and long for - that season of muck and that smell of the moist, fragrant earth. That winter white and cold temperatures is the time when the only flowers in or near my gardens are the "feathered" kind!

Gardens are really for love - the love of nature and that love of sharing them with others.