I have a garden, a yard, an orchard, flower beds, lawns and woods. There is a marshy area down by the road that I call a “seasonal water feature.” Some years it’s soggy later than others. There is a “sacred grove” of cedars and maples that I protected from clearing when we bought the place, though I allowed several large cedars to be harvested to help us pay for part of the work. The woods in the far back of our lot (which is only a little more than an acre) are third-growth with a few snags that are alder (they don’t live very long), some cedar and maple, and a fir or two. For understory there are lots of red huckleberries which are the native vaccinia in our area, sword ferns and deer ferns, trillium and other lilies depending on the season and assorted invasive and native shrubs like holly and mahonia (Oregon grape).
Usually when I am talking about the garden, I speak of the area between the marsh and the orchard, or the flower beds that are scattered around the front half of the property. Today I worked in the vegetable garden, my 30 x 30 foot spot of tilled earth close to the road. Yesterday I worked just under the medlar tree which is in a kidney-shaped bed by the front door, about 3 feet wide and 15 feet long. Tomorrow, if the rain holds off and I am not incapacitated from working outside today I will work to clear blackberries from the heather plants under a little cedar in front of the house.
Every day I am in the garden there is something to see, something to hear, something to touch, and often something to taste! Even now, long before the fruiting plants are bearing and before most of the vegetables have even germinated there are lovely native sorrel plants that have the tang of citrus when I chew a leaf, and sweet chickweed that feels meatier and tastes sweet and nutty. Being in the garden is restorative, invigorating and motivating.
Here are a few pictures from this morning and afternoon, showing (I hope) a few things that are particularly nice.
my kitchen window
the cold frame with lettuces in the ground and tomatoes and a single apple in pots
the native bleeding heart that volunteered in an awkward spot but is too precious to risk damaging by moving. I will garden around it as long as it wants to stay!
Tom, helping transplant potatoes
Lucky, helping us not get too focused on nonessentials
one lupine, with pinkish petals
another lupine, showing flower spikes both just emerging and more mature, this one has white tips on the blooms
blueberry flowers, and small green berries already starting — the berries form first deeper in, and last at the tips
the first little pink buds on the “nosegay” rosebush
Native phlox — almost white, but a light lavender hue
the trellis arch with my clematis finally trained up it
a small white-petaled geranium from my mother in law
the snowball bush, I liked how the sun made the picture glow
peach leaf curl already starting to deform and discolor the leaves; some years the peaches still manage to mature