Beginning of Summer - Frogs Start Singing
Late fall or early winter my mentor gave me his best description for what his spring and summer feel like and what I could expect with gardening this year. “Wintertime is when you get on top of the bull, you start wrapping your hand with rope and find your grip, and once spring hits, you do your best to stay on the full 8 seconds until July or August and then you can maybe start to relax.”
Not reassuring for all who hear it, but during my winter studies, imagining that kind of endurance and grit set a tone that is helping me with my current plannings, setting priorities for tasks, maintaining standards with projects, and tending to my physical, emotional, and mental health.
Mental health was a key topic this week…usually is a reoccurring theme, with fair reason. Podcasts this week revolved around this as well.
Revolutionizing oneself allows one to be unmoved in the winds of adversity. “When the wind blows, you see the true strength of the grass.” (Japanese proverb)
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GARDEN
Days are becoming busier, and I can notice plants growing inch by inch each day. Monday the irrigation/light service company visited one of the gardens for springtime service and to test and see if there are any issues arising or pressing problems. Irrigation system is up and running, but gardening and caring for land became touchy that day due to a wet everything.
Great White Trilium (Trilium grandiflorum) has started blooming this week along with a native red flowering trillium (Trillium recurvatum), Prairie Trillium.
Garden highlights this week were:
Planting Meadow Rue (Thalictrum rochebruneanum), Large Leaved Aster (Aster macrophyllus), and Snowy Campion (Silene nivea).
Site walkthrough with mentor assessing current and future bulb plantings, annuals versus perennial plantings, and overall stewardship.
Began dividing up perennials, starting with Allium “Summer Beauty”.
Deadheaded spent daffodils where perennials will not hide the desiccated petals in order to improve lush aesthetic for bulbs in bloom and growing perennials.
Almost finished edging all the beds to help the viewer’s eye to naturally land on the plants instead of paths.
Laid out flagging to better visualize groupings and drift patterns before planting in this woodland bed.
Mentor Roy Diblik happily recording a video of the woodland garden he designed and installed. Next week we will be planting shrubs interspersed along fence line.
Dividing Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion (Allium angulosum ‘Summer Beauty’) to fill in adjacent holes.
Thinking about durable, longterm perennial plantings. Left of Allium grouping is Eastern Beebalm (Monarda bradburiana), likely it will pioneer into the Allium, which is desired to create a dense garden bed. Many varieties of Species Tulips are planted throughout beds to give pops of color in early Spring.
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BONSAI
Transplanted a couple birch trees I collected from my mother’s art studio roof…long story, but I dearly adore them. They will now grow in ceramics I repurposed from GoodWill. Simply drilled drainage holes in the ceramics and made myself the cheapest pots on the market! Trimmed a few elongating deciduous trees to redirect growth inward, mindfully left leggy length on the branches I wish to thicken. Brought trees in Thursday and Friday, air temperature both nights dropped below freezing. Being proactive with care and always enjoy a hearty “bonsai shuffle” workout. Almost all deciduous are budding out! A few collected trees are getting close…
Winterberry.
Fallen clippings.
Caitlin elm.
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PODCASTS & LITERATURE
Podcasts this week:
Saruyama Bonsai - Bonsai and Mental Health Live Stream with Peter Warren and…
So thrilled that such an open, honest discussion is taking place at a larger community level. Especially among men. Often I find that men talk less about mental health and emotional states, though many surely have things to discuss. Can attest since I often fall into that category of withholding emotions…so it goes. Cheers Peter and please keep it up!
OnBeing with Krista Tippet - ep. 835 Devendra Banhart: ‘When Things Fall Apart’
Enjoyable to hear bouncing ideas and experiences of the ‘spiritual book club’ style of podcasting. Directly correlated to what we are all experiencing in the world these days.
Buddhist Solutions for Life’s Problems - Being Buddhist Parents
Insights on how to foster children and encourage them to blossom just as they are. Also understanding, that when a child is born, so is a parent. Take care of nourishing both new beings.
Books:
Upstream - Mary Oliver
Her writings are ever encouraging to slow daily pace and listen closer, harder to the ordinariness around me.
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses - Robin Wall Kimmerer
‘Twas gifted to me by my future mother in law, picked up from a local independent bookstore. Beyond eager to slice away some of time for to learn more about bryophytes!
Mastery - Robert Greene
Gifted to me by two of the dearest humans, both share a compassionate corner of my heart.
Weeds of the Northern U.S. and Canada - France Royer & Richard Dickinson
Suggested by my mentor, this reference book will serve as a tremendous tool in identifying uprising weeds in the garden. Let’s hope though I do not have to use it too often…
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The Beginning of Summer - Frogs Start Singing, I did not hear any frogs singing in the gardens but I followed an American Toad for some leaps!
Hope light and love fill your days,
-M-
