Today I decided to ignore the heat and tackle my neglected, long-suffering front garden. All the perennials in the front garden are now done blooming. We start with the daffodils in early spring, along with the forsythia bush, and then have a glorious, if brief, spring garden of tulips, grape hyacinth, and crocus. Then comes the single peony, just planted this year. Next are a riot of tiger lilies and day lilies. There were a ton of them last year and this year there were two tons. I love the lilies, but once they're done blooming you end up with a front garden that looks a bit...well, wild. I'm not into manicured gardens. I like that my front garden looks like everything just grew where it chose to grow. It doesn't look deliberate, and so even the bulbs manage to have a certain wild aspect to them. I love that. There are big rocks and smaller rocks and piles of stones as well. I LOVE our front garden. But once there are no blooms, and it's all greens shooting off in every direction and a foot deep, well...then the house just looks kind of...abandoned.
So today I waded in and cut back all the lily greens and weeded.There were annuals that needed to get into the ground, to add some color now that the bulbs are all done for the year. My mother brought a carload of plants when she visited on Tuesday, as the prices and selection are much better in Jersey. I planted black-eyed Susans and coneflowers (yep. Perennials! I'm hoping they like it well enough to come back next year and spread. How nice would they look if they took over where the bulbs leave off for late summer and early fall?) I planted some other annual that promises to creep and drape. What did my mom call it? I can't remember what it is.
I also planted begonias in window boxes. I love begonias. They remind me of my grandmother. (So do peonies and hydrangea. I'm going to plant hydrangea next year. My gardening choices are entirely determined by childhood memories.)
So all this work was done and now a few hours later I'm looking out the window, admiring my work, and I find the garden is overrun with sparrows. Maybe twenty of them! All on the ground and hopping onto the lily stubs and poking around. We have really good soil with lots of fat worms. Could they be after the worms? I think more likely it's all the yummy bugs I disturbed when I weeded and pulled all the decaying leaves etc out of there. Sparrows are one of my favorite birds...what a fantastic reward for a day of gardening. Now I get to watch the sparrows!
It would be nice if I now showed you a photo of the garden, wouldn't it? I can't, though. Or rather, I won't. See, as friendly as we all are, posting a photo of the front of my house on the Internet seems like asking for trouble. I'm sure you understand. Take my word for it. It looks pretty damn good right now.
Have a great weekend. Feed some sparrows.
Posted by cari at July 22, 2005 04:13 PMMmm, coneflowers and black-eyed susans.
Have you thought of New England asters? They're nice fall perennials.
Posted by: naomiIsn't the feeling of accomplishment wonderful? Kind of like finishing a knitting project! I'm sure your new perennials will be marvelous and even better next year.
Posted by: StephanieMy gardening has always been a dip into childhood memory. You sound like you might have what I have: a latent knowledge of plants that you never remembered learning about, but when you walk past the lobelia in someone's yard, your brain says "lobelia." All those years with your mom and grandmother, me with my gardening mother, it sinks it. We are perennials. Hmmmm.
Posted by: RachaelBest bit about gardening is sitting back, admiring, and watching other things take over and give it new life - like the birds. One of the best things about gardens in Australia is the hundreds of parrots which feed off trees each day - the sound and colour is fantastic.
Posted by: AlisonClearly you've missed the boat on the latest fad in blog-garden-photography.
Macro. Zoom in on a sparrow or a flower and call it good.
;-)
Posted by: claudiaI take closeups of my neighbor's garden...even more removed than Claudia's solution ;-) Though, how can I not...he puts things like dolls' heads where pitchfork handles should be, and makes trucks have accidents in his trees...what a character :-)
Posted by: Lee AnnSounds lovely. My garden is sort of a metaphor for my personal life of late: a little scraggly and umkempt, sort of random, but with occasional periods of things looking and behaving as they should. Maybe if the heat let's up I'll go in and try to creat some order.
Posted by: reginaLest you think I'm a dope, I know that l-e-t-s doesn't actually get an apostrophe, but the Blackberry automatically inserts one. Just to be clear. Ahem.
Posted by: reginaI can imagine your front garden, newly planted/weeded and overrun with sparrows, and in my head it's just lovely. My parents are huge gardeners, and like Rachael I think I've absorbed some of that knowledge, even though I can't keep a houseplant alive. But just like my childhood piano lessons, I can see myself returning to that past experience someday and being able to remember more than I'd expected.
Posted by: alisonI completely get it on the summer garden run wild look. I, too, have lots of spring blooms but when mid-summer hits I've got lots of green leaves and not much else. The tall phlox haven't bloomed yet and the lilies have gone by. So last weekend my SIL helped me cut things back and weed and we planted some zinnias and black-eyed susans and shasta daisies. It looks much better so I'm sure yours does as well! Doesn't it feel satisfying when it's done?!?!
Posted by: CaroleYup, most likely the bugs were what the sparrows were feasting on. Mmmm, black-eyed susans and coneflowers. Love 'em.
Posted by: NormaCari - Thanks for the comment on my blog. I'm stealing a bit of my FIL's internet time, so I can't really catch up on my reading. Just wanted to say I was the one who was wonky with your pattern. Not the pattern. I shouldn't be knitting it while trying to keep the kids out of the refrigerator (my 8-year-old nephew is a stomach with feet). I'll have photos sometime next week. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some loafing around to do.
Posted by: Stephanie VWWhat, no irises? Pfft. Pfft, I say.
Posted by: Iris