Last Year: Colorful but Chaotic

Some truths are hard to come by. Like, the older we get, the older our garden gets. And, in somewhat reverse order, the more help it needs, the more help we need.

It has taken me several years to really come to grips with those fairly simple concepts and I’m not sure I am at one with them yet. But, finally, last fall I engaged our friend Dave Immel to help. I think it was one of my more brilliant moves. Our arrangement is flexible and based upon one big goal – get the garden looking cared for and somewhat organized by summer. And… bit by bit, it’s happening!

Garden Bed All A-Tangle

This past week one of the most needy of the flower beds – the area just outside our library and east room windows – has been transformed. Gone is the bindweed (although Dave cautions that he is still working on it; it lurks everywhere even behind the siding on the house.) And gone are the grass-entangled Shasta daisies and the irregular border of hyacinths. And maybe gone are the Oriental poppies and volunteer day lilies.

Some of those spring and summer bright spots I will lament but I am hopeful that they will appear again or that I can recreate them, even if elsewhere. The huge plus to this garden bed cleanout, though, is that the azaleas that were all clumped together in one corner have been tenderly spread out and replanted where they will have room to thrive.

Those poor azaleas were sort of a “throw away” part of the garden. They each began as very small potted plants, given to us as remembrances when my father and later, my mother, died. I didn’t have the heart to get rid of them when they had outgrown their pots, but I didn’t have any dedicated space in the garden for them, either. Now, they have their own area and already they are looking perkier and are promising to bloom more fully when the time comes.

Breathing Room for Azaleas

And that’s not all that has happened in just these past few days! The rotting stump by the porch is gone; the old pump-that-has-become-yard-art has had some TLC; and, most of all, there is hope. Hope that order can finally be restored to this old garden and it won’t be nagging at us all spring and summer. Thank goodness for Dave!