How Our Garden Grows

On Saturday we ran errands, then I joined Patty and her friend Gail at a country auction right here in Prospect. The farm auction was fascinating. We found out that the elderly couple who passed away had left their entire greenhouse business to their sons, and the men said they would sell plants directly to the public. They currently sell to the trade and at a flea market in Lynchburg. They invited us back to shop in a few weeks when the flats of annuals are ready and promised us “good farm prices”. They won’t have to ask me twice! The old Victorian farmhouse had a gigantic lilac bush that was over eight feet tall. It was already blooming and I had to stick my whole head into the bush and take a good drink of lilac perfume. An elderly lady walking behind me laughed to see my delight.

The farm auction was fun, but the dealers were out in droves from the big cities and outbid all us regular folks, so I hung out in the back of the crowd with the locals. I had only $10 to my name and even the cheapest items went way over that. At one point, the auctioneer held up a pretty – but cracked – glass candy dish. He started the bidding at $2, and I thought, “Well, maybe I can buy something!” But when the bidding went up over $10, I said a little too loudly, “Oh dear, that’s really out of my price range.” The man next to me chuckled and gave me a nod of approval. I think I’m starting to fit in.

How My Garden Grows!

With the temperatures soaring to 80 on Saturday and the heavy rains this past week, everything is sprouting. I spent time cleaning up the flower garden again and discovered my morning glories had reseeded. I’ve got glories sprouting up along the walkway and everywhere but where I want them, which is next to the trellis. I hope the blue ones reseeded. They’re my favorite. I had blue, purple, pink and white planted last year. Today’s photo shows the area from last June.

The Flowers About To – and Already – Blooming

• Bachelor’s Buttons: My mixed purples, crimsons and pinks are in bud. My guess is I’ll have flowers by the weekend!
• Dianthus: All of my perennial dianthus this year just have masses of buds. I can’t wait.
• Phlox: If the deer don’t find them like they did last year, the phlox are already double in size from their planting size last year and also heavily laden with buds.
• Gaillardia: Peeking out from new leaves are flowers buds. These hearty perennials are nonstop bloomers for me and I love their orange flowers.
• Trees and Shrubs: On our drive to Rustburg Saturday morning, we saw gorgeous Snowball viburnums just groaning under the weight of the big white flowers. Redbuds and dogwoods bloom everywhere. Azaleas are just starting to bloom. Tulips are almost done. The irises in Prospect – huge beds of mostly white iris in the front yards of houses dating back to the late 1800’s – are already blooming. Mine are very far away from blooming, as are my neighbors. I think the south facing beds, so near the road and the former railroad track, may have a nice warm microclimate going. I have my eye on the peonies in front of a dilapidated old house next to the firehouse in the town of Prospect. Last year there were massive stands of pinks and Festiva Maxima. There’s nothing like an old bed of peonies in spring to really lift your spirits. If they ever make a move to tear down that old house, I’ll be first on line with my shovel to rescue the peonies. My peonies are a bit too young to have flowers yet. (I think; they may surprise me yet).

The cocoons on the buddleia are still intact. We can’t trim the buddleias down and they are just going a bit wild, but I won’t disturb the praying mantis egg sacs. We protect them carefully and try hard to make sure Shadow doesn’t blunder into them when she ‘helps’ me in the garden.

John, his dad Jack, and I took a walk in the woods on Saturday afternoon and found all the redbuds. For those who have never seen a redbud, they are gorgeous trees that just burst with purple flowers. The bees love them. Our woods are full of wild dogwood too. Unfortunately, they were also full of Lonestar ticks, but luckily I’d worn light colored blue jeans and a light t-shirt and could get them off of me. That’s our signal to stop walking in the woods unless sprayed with insecticide and covered head to toe. It’s an unfortunate reality of life in the country that I’m only just beginning to get used to.

And on Sunday, She Rested
Sunday found me a bit under the weather, so after church, the couch was my best friend for the rest of the day. My gardening buddy Helen called with an invitation to come and play in her garden for a bit and take home some raspberry plants, but I had already nodded off. Perhaps I needed to recover from all the weeding I did during the week. In any event, she has plants waiting for me….