Turncoat

I’ve just used my first synthetic turf in a garden. I’m more than slightly embarrassed to admit that. It’s always felt like parading around in garish polyester or selecting plastic dishes for your wedding china if you were the kind of person who chose fake turf over Kentucky Blue grass or the like. But here’s the conundrum. You want lawn because you have dogs and kids and you don’t want the winter lawn to become slick mud under their trampling feet. That makes it harder to play outside and more likely they’ll track the mess in your house. You don’t want to be tied to a mower each weekend and fertilize and add chemicals to any part of your garden. What’s the politically correct choice out there?

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gone down this path had it not been for my client’s request to do this, but we did and, well, it looks pretty dang good and I’ve become a turncoat. Not that I will recommend this to more clients in the future but it’s given me pause on my righteous opposition to using this product and maybe there’s a balance here that I (we) can comfortably live with.

You be the judge:

Misty Cold

It’s our first hit of the deep freeze but the days are glorious and the frost on the ground gives everything a spruce-blue tinge to it. And the outline of the deciduous trees are shown off in this cold air and crisp light.

I am watching my Lagerstroemia indica start to take shape as it settles into sturdy growth. Instead of looking like the spindly 1/2″ calipers of the trees they were when first planted, the structure of the Japanese Maples, the Stewartias, the Katsuras are coming into their own. I sometimes think I prefer these trees for their good bones more than for their full leafed-out glory. I seem to have yard full of Japanese Maples- and still not done.

Lagerstroemia indica (unknown cultivar)

Acer palmatum ‘Aoyagi’

Acer griseum

Craetagus crus-galli var. inermis

Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’

Can I?

I have now lapsed through another 3 months since my mom died  and have written nothing. I have toasted her and missed her and felt blessed that she had the fullest run of a life that I know. I have lost the triumvirate of my mom, my sister and me in these last 15 months and I am getting my bearings. And I have been busy making gardens.  I have been maxed out, over the top, is there a moment to sleep or eat? busy.

I cannot remember a Fall/Winter of such big lush, soaking wet work since I’ve been landscaping. We have planted in pools of water, and built walls and patios and vegetable garden beds and pushed boulders and drain lines and all of it in knee deep mud. This will be a true test of the resilience of the plant world and the spirits of an incredibly kind and wonderful group of guys who make up the crews.

And I should have taken pictures of all the mess so that when spring comes, the fruits of the November/December labor will seem all worth it.

Can I keep up the pace? Can I keep up the spirit to create gardens and write about it and still love the process? I can think of nothing I would rather do….

Here is a garden we created in the sweltering sun of last summer and will re-visit in a year, once it has filled in. It’s a city farmette- veggie beds and greenhouse, chicken coop and fruit trees. And all with a beautiful view of the sound- taken in from one of the patios or deck. Just makes me smile when I see the transformation.

Before the remodel and new garden- a vision in pink stucco.

After weeks of dust bowls and juggling and miles of stone and yards upon yards of good soil:

An Excellent Life

My mom has passed. After 92 years of teaching me to cook and garden and smiling til the final day, I am without her. I can think of no one who did more oohing and aahhing over a lush garden or a simply elegant flower arrangement. And always in her gracious southern drawl. I can think of no one who gave me more unconditional support in my work/in my life.

Her favorite- narcissus bulbs. Her garden was awash in them each spring.

Near where my mother lived, she always loved seeing what gardens I had done in her neighborhood.

Reflection Riding in Tennessee- my grandfather’s farm where I learned to ride and fish and all about wildflowers

 

My mother, my sister and I walking in the snow at Thanksgiving 1998.

Our vegetable garden. My mom loved the fresh peas, my Jon’s garden art and picnics on our big porch.

Lazy….hazy….

It’s 80 degrees today but you can’t avoid noticing that it’s also September 6th and the nights have a chill air. And the days are getting shorter. Summer was late coming to our area but when it came, it has been so so sweet.

Maybe sweeter because of all the whining about gray cold Seattle that preceded it.

My tomatoes are mostly still green and will likely stay that way. My corn made it knee high about August 4th at best. But the weather has been pitch perfect for weeks and I will not complain a whit about it- we’ve had it so good. A brief look back at summer’s beauty unfolding….

Satisfying Changes

Yogini

I spent last weekend nurturing my middle eye. I haven’t practiced yoga- or at least been to a class- in about 2 years but this weekend I went for total immersion for all of 36 hours. But it was calming and centering and set in the lovely home of a friend. Who happens to have one of the more stunning gardens around. I did not have even a teensy bit to do with its design. I just got to walk in it, read in it and take a few photos. enjoy…