Shifting Gears

Okay. .. so, now who is going to clean my house?..How do I get dinner made? How do I even get my indoor plants watered? Oh yeah...and who is going to write this blog for me? I want to be in the garden permanently now that the temps. are in the 50s. They say it may even hit 70 on Thursday. Don't expect me to be blogging then. I've got my camera geared up and ready to go. The garden centers open in a couple of weeks. How do I shift gears from winter to spring? I've waited so long for it to get here and now I am overwhelmed!

Clover Lawns Protect the Environment and Beautify Your Yard

My new blogger friend Esther commented on yesterday's blog that she wanted further explanation for my attraction to clover lawns. I realized I've only mentioned that I've become a big fan of them, but I haven't explained myself.

As we all know, keeping a grass lawn green takes a lot of water and often a lot of chemicals. I have been convinced by a fellow gardener that American's attraction to grass was the result of clever marketing. We deem clover a weed, but how many of us have ever seen a full clover lawn?

It is a beautiful site. While interviewing gardeners for my upcoming book, I met Cindy. She is the first proponent for the clover lawn whom I have ever met. Here is why:

• Clover stays green without chemicals
• It takes little water
• It maintains the health of the soil - proper nutrients, proper animal life, healthy microorganisms thrive in a clover lawn
• It takes less mowing than grass
• It is softer under foot than grass
• It is gorgeous!

Here is a photo of Cindy's lawn:

Eleanor Perenyi in her book Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden espouses the benefits of "alternative" lawns. She says, "Alternatives are few, but there is one I would commend to lawn-lovers in the North: that old favorite, white clover (Trifolium repens). Clover lawns aren't new and time was when all good grass mixtures included clover seed. Clover will grow almost anywhere that isn't too dry or too hot, isn't particular about soil (which benefits by adding nitrogen), makes a dense, weed resistant carpet that cuts mowing by half, greens up early...The real reason you don't see clover any more is that it is killed by broad-leaved herbicides...Once again a good thing is pushed off the market for reasons that have nothing to do with the consumer's interests" (p. 115) Perenyi wrote this almost thirty years ago. It's time to bring back the clover lawn!

Random Sunday Ruminating

Among the common bulbs I have in my garden is the modest little crocus. The crocus ushers in spring for me. I always remember the crocus as the first blossoms in my garden. Just when I feel the snow is not melting fast enough...the blooms arrive. They arrived this morning.

I just started digging my new garden yesterday. The perimeters of my my yard are still surrounded by snow, but the center of the property is soft enough to drive in a spade.

I see that the moles were busy at work over the winter. I am going to try to chase them away by burying fish heads in their holes. I picked this tip up in a gardening book I read this winter. The poison I used last autumn obviously didn't work...I'd prefer to go natural anyway and I'm heading to all natural throughout the yard this year.

My husband told me that since I canceled lawn service last year that he planned to go pick up Scott's 4 step. I told him, "I don't want that crap on my lawn." He smiled patiently at me and told me that it is cute when I curse. Since I don't do it often, he says he knows I'm serious when I do. He also told me that he thinks to himself, "Isn't it cute? She's trying to curse." I guess I can't be offended in any way...my high school athletic director nicknamed me "the ivory soap girl." Twenty years later I'm not quite so pure, but I guess I haven't thoroughly changed either. Anyway, I told my hubby that I have a plan to use natural things on the lawn... as well as slowly changing over to clover . (But the clover part is between you and me okay? I"m easing him into it.)

The spring iris bulbs, tulips, and daffodils are poking through the snow and straw mulch I laid down last year. The foxglove is already green and looking plucky. The roses bushes show green branches.

Plans for the week...digging, raking, and picture taking. Hooray!

Little Bulbs

My mother sent me an e-mail yesterday with "The Daffodil Principle." (This story is available as a book written my Jeroldeen Edwards. Since the "Daffodil Principle" is posted all over the web, I am hoping that reiterating the story here is not copyright infringement. Please everyone, go out and buy Ms. Edwards book if you like her story. The illustrations look lovely.)

The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother." "Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn. "Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world ...

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....

Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...

There is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don't need money.
Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.

If you want to brighten someone's day, pass this on to someone special.

I just did!

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin..

***

So, I got curious and decided to do a bit of research. I learned that this kind of story is called a glurge. "What's a glurge?" I asked myself. According to the yawictionary glurges are " Sickeningly sweet stories with a moral, often hiding slightly sinister undertones..."[none of those undertones here that I can see] "Imitative of the retching that might be induced by stories of this kind." LOL! I don't usually get taken in by "sickeningly sweet," but this is garden related so I'm a sucker. Plus mom said this story reminded her of me. How could I not get taken by something so heartfelt from my mom?!

The story also reminded me of a non-fiction book that I am reading entitled "The Little Bulbs" by Elizabeth A Lawrence. Miss Lawrence was a well-known gardener and garden author in the mid-twentieth century. She had correspondence with many gardeners around the country, including a man who maintained a plot of land that sounds a lot like the one in "The Daffodil Principle." Turns out they are not the same person. Evidently this passion for daffodils is not so rare.

I imagine myself planting one bulb at a time to achieve a yard filled with daffodils, or tulips, or hyacinth...My friend Regina, who I am working hard to turn into a gardener, nearly burst yesterday when we were in her yard and she discovered that the bulbs she planted last autumn came up. She was amazed. She decried, "There's hope for me after all! I didn't kill them! I can be a gardener!" Nothing can awaken the passion like those easy to care for, spreading bulbs. Long live "The Daffodil Principle!"

Still Life Part Deux

Back on February 19th, I posted about creating still lifes. Today I want to walk you through one of my still life sessions. This session took about 30 minutes and included 45 photographs. There are three photos that I will likely print. This was a good session. I often only end up with one photo and the sessions often take longer than this did. I am going to show you some selected images from the session. I was inspired by some standard supermarket tulips and the early spring light that shines through my dining room window. My house is filled with large windows, so I am often stuck by light at a particular time of day while I'm sipping tea or playing dolls with my daughter. I think, "Hmmm, I must capture this light in some way..." And off I go with an idea.

I started with the idea that I wanted to incorporate an old tulip photo with a live tulip arrangement, based on my "Art in Bloom" blog posting two days ago. As I shoot, the idea changes. I get new inspiration from what I'm doing and get into a bit of a groove. The arrangements I did with the framed image included a vase of flowers and sometimes two. I've posted my favorite from a series of about ten where I moved the vases around to all different positions to find the spot where I liked it best.

Then the idea morphed. I used a bowl to prop my photo. this bowl eventually came out from behind the photo and became an element in the picture.

I soon decided that I wanted the emphasis to be on the simple flower vase, the white wall, and the lighted window. I added some blue cloth to change the color palette so that it would complement the flowers and brighten the picture. I keep about ten different fabrics on hand to use as backgrounds, swags, and cloths just for this purpose.

I then chose to emphasize the vertical aspect of the flowers and window by turning the camera. These are the final products.

Seedlings

I generally like to photograph flowers in full bloom, but Robin at Robin's Nesting Place gave me the inspiration to post seedlings. This is the first year that I have started seeds indoors and I am thrilled. I have tomatoes, eggplant, and chinese cabbage. I've got more to put in this week (cucumbers and I forget what else needs to be started indoors, but I do have a plan for once.) I also started some cosmos and butterfly weed seeds. What a thrill to watch the little green sprouts come up in my sunroom, while the windows still look out on snow. It makes "real" spring seem that much closer for me.

The pictures themselves are nothing to get excited about, except for the tiny hairs visible on the tomato stems. How miraculous is that? I also like to watch the little dew drops collect on the two tiny leaves. There are also some seeds that we must have dropped directly into the tray without soil. They are coming up through styrofoam holes. My daughter finds this fascinating.

I've got 70 tomato plants...is that obsessive? I already have friends claiming my "extras." The good news folks is that I like to share. The bad news is that I don't generally share tomatoes. One has to be very nice to me to get fresh organic tomatoes. And I have plans for these babies too if they can make it off my kitchen counter. We generally keep a tomato bowl on the counter and dip into it all through August for snacking. I only had 6 plants though last year. With 70 I'm counting on extras. Let's see..tomato sauce, salsa, frozen tomatoes to eat with mozzarella...the list is endless really. There is no food more perfect than a tomato. Leave me on a desert island with just tomatoes and I'd be happy. (And so far I haven't developed an intolerance to this food. If I eat too much of any one thing that's what happens to me...but I"ll save that story for another time.)

The anticipation of fresh vegetables will now carry us through until we can move our maturing plants outside. We still have garden prep work to do since we are starting a garden in a new spot this year. We have ground to turn, composting and top soil to add, and a fence to put up to keep away deer. This horrible NH winter (with about 115 inches of snow this year) will be quite faded in our memories by the time tomato season roles around.

The Art of Gardening

Gardening means "to cultivate a plot of land." And in the case of my perennial garden, which takes up most of my gardening effort, I would like to refine the definition to say: "To cultivate a plot of land for beauty and enjoyment."

Art means " The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty."

Do you think that perennial gardening is an art? I certainly do. Gardening is a creative means of self-expression. The type of garden you create makes a statement about who you are and what you enjoy. Your garden provides visual stimulation with its colors and forms. It can also provide aural and scent stimulation. The multi-sense experience available in the garden certainly affects one's "sense of beauty."

Every year around this time, museums all over the country host "Art in Bloom" events. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts event will take place April 26-29. If you have never had the pleasure of viewing an "Art in Bloom" exhibit, I encourage you to attend one. Flower arrangers are invited into fine art museums to choose a painting and base an arrangement on the artwork. The flower arrangement is then set alongside for visitors to enjoy. Obviously, the arrangements only last a short time. The arrangement mimics the original artists sensibility, but the ability to duplicate the original emotional expression of the fine artist is an art in itself. Not everyone can create such beautiful arrangements. For the arranger to be able to apply this skill to interpreting what the original artist had to say is miraculous to me.

Locally, in my area, I read that a gentleman recently wrote a book about gardens inspired by art. Unfortunately I misplaced the ad for the talk he is going to give at a local museum and I am unable to find reference to it online. But I am intrigued by the idea of this book. Imagine creating a whole garden to mimic one of the great fine artists. You could create the obvious gardens in Monet's work, based on his own personal gardens in Giverny. (Monet was actually an avid gardener who saw his own gardens as works of art and used them to inspire his paintings.) You can create fields of iris inspired by Van Gogh's iris. Or you can reach beyond flowers and just be inspired by vivid colors in pictures to create your own interpretations. Maybe Degas' dancers put you in the mood for tiny pink blossoms? This kind of gardening would be "Art in Bloom" on a grand scale!

I have never tried to create a garden based on the artists. Perhaps that can be a side project this year? What I do consciously accomplish in my own garden is a harmony of colors. My front garden is made up of primarily oranges and yellows. Purples overlap with yellow early in the season, creating a contrast of opposite colors on the color wheel. In my backyard garden I focus on pinks and purples with splashes of other colors. This color harmony stimulates me. I feel calm when I look at a garden with flowing waves of color. I like my two dimensional art work very much the same way. I also appreciate tight compositions that allow the eye to flow from one element to another.

For those of you who have never thought of yourselves as artists, try thinking about your garden in this way. What patterns do you see? What colors attract you? What elements do you appreciate in a garden? How do you decide where to place things? Then, take a look at a history of art book. (I recommend H.W. Jansen's History of Art if you can get your hands on a copy of his book. He provides a diverse range of works to get you fully acquainted with the art world through time.) Determine what attracts you to certain pictures. Are they the same elements that attract you to a particular gardening style?