Springtime Gratitude

This year for my birthday I decided to take a leap of faith and invite some close friends to help in the yard. It seems a bit presumptuous of me but I find between working at home and being the gardener it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes. Having a perfectionist way about me all I ever see is what is wrong and needs work. The longer I go without doing the work the more overwhelming it seems. So this year I thought the best gift would be a giant jumpstart to help get me over the hump.

I was really nervous about it all but people actually showed. My friend Lorraine the caterer had to work but insisted on feeding us all anyway. I could be wrong but it seemed everyone really kind of enjoyed themselves. There is something about working on a shared project together that makes it much more fun and people get to visit as well. -I think we should all do this kind of thing for each other more often. (and it shouldn't even need to be a birthday)

Thank you again everyone. I await your call when you need a hand......

Dry Time in the Garden

It's that time of year I look around the garden and all those things that looked just fabulous a couple of months ago seem tired, faded, and dry. The gophers are again laying siege on some of the plants. A couple new roses I was exited about turned out to be not quite what I wanted. The two blueberry bushes the neighbor gave me I thought would get watered by the grey water system- but now are obviously not going to make it without full irrigation. It can be hard to find things to get exited about, then I look around and realize there are those plant-friends that seem to be happily buzzing along and I notice with guilt how beautiful they are without needing anything from me at all. The best kind! I just have to remember to fully appreciate them.

 The front yard is a jungle of the huge leaves from my massive split leaf philodendron. They also last forever as giant leaves in a vase indoors.

 From one of the back yard planters one of a few dark Aeoneum Zwartkop. (I think- or just "dark thingy succulent) Such beautiful color.

 Growing up we had a relative of this plant and it was called a Wandering Jew. Not sure if that's politically correct so I looked up the real name (which I would never remember) and it is in fact a Tradescantia Zebrina. All I know is it grows practically like a weed. A piece falls off and there you find it a week later taken root. I don't find it invasive as it does want some water, but for the all that color and resilience I give it high marks.

 And what made me think of this post in the first place was looking out from my window seat the other morning to see that the Ginger is blooming again. Another jungle plant I do nothing about, beautiful variegated leaves and when nothing else seems to be showing off it pops out some of these tropical flowers. It is an ornamental Ginger so not the kind you would dig up for the roots. (although that would be great too if it grew like this one did)

Remember the heros of the garden....