August 2014 Garden Update

I got my first bee sting today!  Full disclosure:  all these photos were taken while I was in a grumpy, post-bee sting mood:

back yard

succulents in an old grill

black-eyed susans, or some sort of rudbeckia

cone flowers/echinacea 

some sort of tropical bulb (bromeliad family, I think)
I have to pull it out and over-winter it every year.

cleome

back yard

gourd harvest

variegated rudebeckia

front yard

neighborhood/guerrilla garden

cosmos

cosmos and margiold

this guy's about 10/12 inches long

our lawn crew know to mow around the garden! =)

hidden treasure!

marigolds = edible!

cosmos

blue cornflower

more cosmos and lil' bee

black pearl hot peppers

seed harvest (what, you think these gardens plant themselves?!)

wild mustard seeds
(considered a weed.  need to find out if they're invasive or aggressive) 

seed harvest helper

icing my bee sting with a couple of frozen bananas!

If you're curious about noxious, invasive plants in Maryland check out this guide: http://mda.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Documents/weedbrochure.pdf

Here's a nutshell version story of my gardens:  We got our house about 7 years ago.  It had a postage-stamp-sized front yard, and a slightly larger back yard, with lawns.  We had a vintage push mower for the grass, which got tiresome real quick, plus it was tearing up the roots of our weeping cherry tree out front.  Josh lamented this chore, so one day I said, "Let's just mulch it."  And we did.  We mulched over all of it, front and back.  This was after I killed the grass by smothering it with some old carpet, and then newspaper (after some annoying letters from our HOA, 'What are you doing with that pink carpet in your yard??!').  Finally, after the winter snow melted from our pink carpet, we paid 10 dollars at the county yard waste facility for a truck full of mulch and did the deed.

We got some plants from the local farmers' market and some end-of-season ones from the Home Depot and our gardens were on their way!  A few years later I worked at a local garden where careful editing was par for the course, which meant free plants to good homes!  My home gardens got filled up quickly and now they are at maintenance-level, no longer planting-level.  That makes life pretty sweet.

Buuttt, I love it; I can't get enough.  I love gardening and I love being busy in the dirt.  So last year I took it upon myself to ready a patch across the street (in the 'common area' of my townhouse community) for yet another garden.  I hand-tilled a whole swath that you can even see on google maps:  

I was soon expecting letters from my gd HOA again asking what I was up to.  I was ready to retort that I was merely removing the noxious Japanese Knotweed and replacing it with wildflowers to create a garden for pollinators and local birds and wildlife, but the need never arose.  No one asked me about my shenanigans via letter, but I have met more of my neighbors than I've ever spoken to in the past 5 or so years.  They walk by with their dogs, they wave when they drive by, their kids spy on me from their windows, and sometimes they walk up and chat.  Sometimes they check out the garden on their own, which I love.  I've been thanked by many of my neighbors, which I greatly appreciate since they don't have to say anything at all.  Last year one woman told me she was away for a while taking care of her dying mother and when she got back she was happy to see the flowers still in bloom as the summer was turning into fall.  She appreciated the flowers - just that they were there and they appeared out of nothing, nowhere. I can take no credit, really, for the natural beauty of what a flower is.  But I love it; I really do.  I love gardening and sometimes feel I take their beauty for granted.  I was reading about a photo project this artist did after interviewing prisoners, asking them what view they miss or wish they could see.  Their answers were interesting and heartbreaking.  I get to look at my gardens everyday.  I'm sure in my own way I take them for granted. 

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Post Script:  the entire neighborhood garden is from compost, gathered seeds, and dollar-store seeds.  My motto this year was Survival of the Fittest.
Pro Tip:  many dollar stores put out their seeds and garden supplies in early spring, restocking until they run out.  Seed packets are often 4/dollar.

Here are pics from last year's gardens:

July 2013 back yard

July 2013 front yard

July 2013, the first guerilla garden.  The sunflowers were great!  2014 did not fare well for them; they were all eaten by deer early on.  =(

sunflowers, wildflowers, marigolds

Things I've learned:
Deer like:  sunflowers, zinnias, and hostas very, very much.
Deer are awful.
If you surprise a bee, it will sting you.
Gourds are super easy to grow and will take over your garden.  The stalks are super prickly and itchy and I personally get an allergic reaction with too much contact.
Seed saving is totally worth it.  Things that took well this year were: cosmos (pink and orange), gourds, tomatoes, marigolds, cleome, coneflower, rudbeckia 
The trick is to keep your compost pile really, really moist. Otherwise it's a dry pile of old plant material and not compost. 

Happy gardening!
  

One Day in May

One day in May

after weeks of feeling unwell

I felt okay enough

to till the soil

and sow seeds in my garden.

My garden you can see from the sky

Every once in a while

a little boy watches me from his window

and once a woman stopped to say

she enjoyed the flowers

that were still there

after her mother passed away.

One day in May

it was hot and then cold

I spread the soil

under a rake

and threw the seed unto the dirt

precious dirt

that I inhale

and the sun warms me

I thought of my past loves

and how they gave me

all I've ever wanted

How all my unrequited love

made me a wife

and gave me a life -- 

a good life

and a garden.

And for this I still love you

I look back to love you

and thank you for everything

I'm thankful for the hurt, dears

that ache helped me transcend pain

I now love life

and I embrace the fear

because I don't despise death

I've lived a life 

and keep living a life

and plant my garden

year after year.

Cleome, marigolds, sunflowers

zinnias, coneflowers, black-eyed susans: 

it's all easy

I just toss the seeds and they grow

and it's easy.

It's hard work,

but it's easy

and it keeps coming back

to reward all who sees.

I sometimes fear I'll not know you

you reject and resist my love for you

I'll never know why; but that's the lesson.

I know

that unrequited means I don't get it back.

I love, and am unloved

I love and am loved.

You've taught me there are some things

I don't get to understand

and it's not up to me

and one day I'll understand

I see it and I don't see

It's just love; why is it so hard to return it to me?

And a million other lovers wonder why

like a million burned out stars in the sky

like all the seeds I'll sow that won't make it

that are dead before touching the ground

or suffer a fate before they bloom.

I know you and yet I don't know you

I love you, but who are you?

Does it matter?  I know it doesn't matter

So I keep on doing it because what else is there?

Every year I plant the garden

every year another few inches of land I've conquered

I treat it well, it grows for all

in the fall I rip it out and let it be

but before that comes, I gather the seeds.

I collect in the heat

in the sun

I'm out with everyone else out

walking their dogs

driving by

playing in the street

peeking from their windows.

One of these days, you've gotta come see my garden

It's my love; it gets me out and about

the birds and bees and bugs come and take and live in it

and those blooms you can see from the sky.