Around the Corner
The back porch garden has done well this winter. There are no weeds to speak of and only the blackfoot daisies look dead and gone. All that might need doing this spring is to refresh the mulch and replace the daisies if they fail a spring rebound. It’s a nice change from years past when the garden would have gone to seed over the late summer as I failed to keep up. It appears, after ten years, weed barrier and a good mulching, to have found a steady state with lavender, miniature agave, a miniature crape myrtle, a couple of grasses, an evergreen sumac and a rosemary occupying the space.
The latter two, at the east end of the porch, are in their relative youth and I’m expecting big things from them over the coming years. In fact, at some point, I image the rosemary will crash as they are want to do, and sumac will come to occupy the entire east end. Meanwhile, at the west end live three lavender plants in what appears to be xeriscape heaven. They had a good spring, summer, and winter and if they behave like the lavender in the front yard, they’ll become these nice mature sprawling plants that smell good with pretty blooms. I can hardly wait.
And therein lies the fun of gardens, anticipation. It’s one thing as happened last year when I was weeding and digging and mulching, to create the current setup, and quite another to have it in place, see the plants set, start maturing, and coming to occupy the space. The first was work, to occupy time, the latter is about tomorrow. And that’s good because after the passing of my wife most things felt like work to occupy time. But now that it’s February and we’re a half step closer to spring, and the back porch garden is seeming to say, just you wait, it’s a lot easier to see there may indeed be a tomorrow with something good in it, and she liked the smell of lavender, as do I.