The summer garden

July 19—not even 9:30am yet and I’m already crashing—literally. As much as I love working outside, I could had never been a cherry picker, or a grape picker, or a field worker.  I’m a total failure working under the scorching sun of summer.  My strength is weak, and fleeting… and thus, pruning the garden this morning had once again proven and confirmed all of the above.  

Ah, the perennials!  Fleeting as they can be, they are such an unruly bunch.  Right after they finished blooming they must be pruned down to the ground if you want to keep the aesthetic of the garden flowing.  The Shasta daisy were already tumbling down; leggy and unaccommodating as they are, and the Virginia creeper on the west side of the garden was growing without control, and so was with the herb garden; needing a good tidying up. This is the second time this year that I’ve pruned the viburnum snowball bush, and the effort was exhausting and arduous. 

Once long ago, behind that wall-tall Shasta daisy road, on the west side of the garden, a dwarf Burning bush used to grow there.  It dried out, and it needed be removed from the ground up roots and all—and what an ordeal that had been!  But it’s all done now.  The support where one of the Virginia creeper vine stands needs to be repaired soon, and the black-eyed Susan bushes hiding behind the Shasta daisy will need to be moved to another location.  But under this heat, I can only do so much, even in the early morning hours. 

On the other side of the garden, all those daylilies growing too bushy and too desiccated were removed for good today too.  The mysterious tall type of a perennial that’s been growing since the beginning of spring, but haven’t put a single flower yet was removed as well.  I may later regret having done this, but whatever these were, they were taking too long to put flowers, taking too much space in the garden for nothing, and it just had to be removed.  In the old good days of this garden, I would had never done that. Every plant and leaf here were a sacred thing to me, but now I don't want to waste time doing that. Life is too short, days too fleeting, summer too short.  I dislike something and out they go.   

The other day I went to see my little pond and was utterly surprised to discovered that a new garden creature had moved in!  His name is Maurizio (he’s Italian), and he has made my little pond, his pond.  As you can imagine, I’m thrilled!  Happy as can be, tacky as I can be, happy being just my little tacky silly self… 

I always say: 'Share your happiness with the world, give other people that happiness and let it come back,' so I’m hoping that, even if he’s not real, seeing him in my little pond will make you happy too!

Hence, I will continue accumulating garden friends until the Fisherman throw them out or throw me out, because he doesn’t really like seeming them ‘round here, you know!  "Is tasteless", he would say.  But I’m tasteless, tacky, and cheap in many ways; particularly when it comes to my garden!  Oh well what can I say, that’s who I am… and when I am myself, that’s when I am the happiest.  And that always have good results! 

You’re my favorite garden friends!  There’s always this piece of my heart that smiles when I see you here.  So remember this... someone remembers, someone cares; your name is whispered in someone’s prayers!

Love and hugs!