Gardens of Delight

I’m going to share a secret with you–my gardens are in horrendous shape. All of them. Yet, they still delight me, they are still filled with flowers which have returned to bloom again, as well as others I have recently planted, thriving among weeds and overgrowth and, well, you get the picture.

There’s one thing about the weeds and overgrowth that doesn’t trouble me. The birds and the insects and shy little creatures are loving it. To them, this is a combination of planned and wild at its best. I’m really sort of going for that vibe, anyway. After all, I have nearly four acres, two of which are grass I have dutifully kept trimmed year after year. And for what? I mean, really, for what? I don’t have a cricket team that needs it for a pitch, or whatever the heck it’s called. (I honestly know nothing about cricket.) I’m also not going for a photo shoot in House Beautiful (yeah, as if that would ever happen). Personally, I utilize very little of the land I see when I look out my windows. It’s time nature took it back. At least, to some degree.

I am leaving large swaths of grass to grow long, filled with the flowers that wish to bloom there. The area on the other side of the smaller stream is knee high with whatever flourishes where the underground springs have been popping up in recent years. There’s a path down the middle of it, though, so I can manage my way to the arborvitae in Winter to take clippings for use with other greens on the wreaths I make every Christmas season.

The fenced yard out the back door I do continue to mow in its entirety because, well, the dog and I like to spend time out there. Occasionally my kids and other people, too, but mostly the two of us, Pippa and me. The raised beds of the vegetable garden are also in that area. It seemed prudent to move the operation within the fence after the garden out front became fodder for groundhogs, bunnies, and deer. Probably other creatures, too, sight unseen, snagging the flowers before the fruit ever came to, ahem, fruition.

Yet, as usual in my blogs, I digress. I really wanted to show off the wonderful flowers and that’s all. I’ll keep you posted about my grand experiment and whether nature does come to fully appreciate my sacrifice, because, yeah, not weed-whacking the crap out of every nook and cranny, not running the lawn tractor each Saturday over a vast, open field, is truly a sacrifice. Yeah. Right. I’m happy to lie to myself. Sure. Why not. Sacrifice. That’s what it is. I’m sticking by that. (And right now, if certain neighbors are reading this, they’re scratching their heads and saying to themselves, “we thought she’d been doing that ‘sacrificing’ thing for years now…”)

Well, okay, you got me. But now it’s official.

Anyhoooo, here are the pictures I wanted to post for you 🙂