My flowers are coming back to me

 

I was blessed to be able to take out some of my plants from my former garden, (see "Another treat" for the story) and now I have the pleasant task of deciding what to do with them.  Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of spending a winter dreaming of where they will go.  They are sitting along the edge of my front garden plot shivering in the chilly Canadian climate.

 

 I have a lot of the ground-covers that I  love, and I will be able to get more in spring.

The yellow day lilies will fit in well,

and so will all the irises.

But how do I make all those decisions in just a few short hours!

Empty Canvas

There's been very little time for landscape gardening this year, and my canvas was still under construction, but now we are almost at the stage where I can start thinking about trees and shrubs and perennials again.

I hope to draw from my daughters' gardens, just as they drew from mine when they started theirs.

I also brought a few divisions of my favorites from my last garden and stuck them in a row in my vegetable garden.

I also plan on using some of the shrubs and trees that are growing wild throughout the property.

The fun will be planning.  But oh what a lot of work to put it all together!

Irises and Columbine

Today my garden is a show of irises and columbine.

None of them cost me a cent.

Mostly they were gifts from my daughter, but she didn't buy them at a nursery either.

 
The columbines were volunteer seedlings, and the irises were mostly castaways from other gardeners.

 
These gifts bless me and all those who pass my garden.

More than gifts from my daughter, these flowers are gifts from a God of detail who created us with a love for beauty.

Planning with former garden pics

My files of garden photos come in so handy in winter.  I can tell at a glance what flowers bloom at what time of the year, and what blooms with what.  I wasn't sure what would bloom at the same time as the bridal wreath I planted beside the driveway here. But these photos give me a good idea.

Normally I would look through my photos and see what worked and what part of the garden should be changed.
This year everything is going to be new, other than the plants that I brought from the last garden.  But it still helps to look back.

Last year I started my vegetable garden out in the field and I actually missed having to tuck some of my veggies in among the flowers.  If you look at the picture above you should spot romaine lettuce, purple cabbage, and thyme growing with the flowers and adding to the cottage garden style.  I plan to continue that practice even though I now have ten acres to play with.

But the extra space means that I can now grow some fast spreading ground hoggers, like sweet woodruff, that I used to love, but gave up on.

It's great to plan, but when spring comes, I wonder if I will have any time to garden, after keeping the animals looked after and going to at least three markets a week with our coconut oil.

I'm sure I will find time, because my soul needs working in the garden just like my husband's brain needs coconut oil.

Something Amazingly Crazy Happened After I Found Blotanical

It was incredible.  One of those one in a thousand chances that just happened.  It all started when I found a fantastic garden community online called blotanica. 

No, actually it started before that when I moved to the last place where we lived.

We moved in spring, and of course, I was busy turning a burr bush weed patch into a garden, but whenever I had to go downtown I would choose the scenic route to get there.  I would tour my neighborhood to view some of what I knew must be Owen Sound's best gardens. When there were no impatient cars behind me I would slow right down and enjoy my driving garden tour. 
I often thought of stopping to talk to a gardener along the way, but I never did.

Back to the present and my new found favorite e-community, Blotanical.  I had no idea there was one site where I could find so many garden blogs from literally all parts of the world.  I started checking out a few of the garden blogs, occasionally commenting or picking a favorite.

One gardener sent me a message back.  I had commented on her beautiful blog and she had seen where I was from.  "Where abouts in Owen Sound are you?" she asked. 

Believe it or not, from a community of thousands of gardeners from all over the world, I had connected with a gardener not only from my own town but from one of those beautiful gardens in my old neighborhood.

If your path should lead to Blotanica be sure to look me up there at my plot