Endings and Beginnings

A peony emerges through a
patch of Forget-me-nots

Deadheading thousands
of daffodils

A lot has happened in the weeks since my last posting. Many different kinds of flowers and trees have bloomed and lost their flowers, my father was put into hospice and passed away, and we closed on our new (71-year-old) home.

Today I spent a glorious warm spring day caging 20 of the peony bushes on the property. It's going to be quite the show compared to the 3 peony bushes I had in Boulder. One of my favorite sights in Spring is how peonies emerge from winter by sending up fingers of leaves from the earth. Given my father's pending funeral, I thought the peonies peaking out around bunches of Forget-me-nots was particularly poignant.

When the peonies were tended to, I deadheaded thousands of daffodils. They were so abundant and short lived. Even the snowstorm of Magnolia petals on the front yard reminded me of losing my father. Celebrating a fully lived joyful life while at the same time mourning his loss.

Magnolia blossoms

Sharing

Digging in with Master Gardeners

As a soon-to-be Princeton area homeowner, many people have urged me to attend the Master Gardeners Plant Expo in May when thousands of plants from Master Gardeners' gardens are donated for sale along with tomatoes and herbs. The owner of the house we are buying is a Master Gardener and asked if she could donate some plants to the Expo and if I would like to participate in the "Big Dig" on the property with her and her friends. She's still the owner and can dig anything she wants. I thought her invitation to include me was wonderfully generous and was thrilled to participate. About nine of her friends came with shovels and gloves and a real sense of camaraderie. It was quite an efficient operation and we had about four dozen pots of perennials packed up in a very short time.

Ready for the Expo

In a few weeks, people will be buying Siberian Iris, native NJ Hay-Scented Ferns, Forget-Me-Nots and Woodland Geraniums from MY garden! Just think there will be bits of it all over the area! And by thinning the plants, the garden will be healthier. 

After everyone else had left, we walked around the garden and the seller pointed out the trees and shrubs that she has planted and nurtured for 15 years. I cut myself another bunch of daffodils. Later, she emailed me a list of all the plants. Fortunately, she provided translations with the Latin names.

Plenty of daffodils to pick from

For the last couple years, I had spent most of my gardening time thinning out plants. Many of my neighbors have ground cover and bearded iris from my garden. The iris thrive in Boulder's dry climate so they needed to be thinned every three years and I had more rhizomes than friends. So I would put dozens of the rhizomes into plastic grocery bags and leave them on the hiking trail behind my house. They'd be gone in no time. So, plants from my garden are all over Boulder, too.

Just planting a garden is a way of sharing. In the 80's, I planted white and pink impatiens around an old Rhododendron in back of our brownstone apartment on West 77th Street in NYC. Neighbors who lived in the upper floors of surrounding buildings would thank me for the view I had given them.

Sunshine State

Mom's Azaleas

I hear it's pouring rain in New Jersey. I'm visiting family in California and soaking up sun and admiring flowers that won't be blooming in New Jersey or Colorado for months.

Fields of mustard 

Mom's 8" diameter roses

I've been taking long dogless walks along a bridle path near my parents' house. It's like a rutted alley dirt behind opulent homes with huge yards. Some have swimming pools, others have stables, one had a grape arbour spreading over about half an acre with sturdy metal poles and supports draped in twisting grape vines and leaves. The intense fragrance of orange blossoms floats by from time to time. Orange, lemon, tangerine and grapefruit trees are laden with fruit.

Tangerine blossoms

This morning, I sat in the garden and watched a fuchsia throated hummingbird buzz from the azaleas to drink from a bubbling fountain and buzz back to the azaleas again. Of course, it moved elsewhere when I got my camera out. The bravest of my mother's four feral cats watches from a distance and scatters when I move. I grew up here but left 32 years ago to live where there are real seasons. I like spring awakenings, summer abundance, fall readjustment and winter's stillness.

Bibby, the watch cat

Beneficial

Photo from the Facebook page of
the Historical Soceity of Princeton

Saturday I ventured to a picturesque Historical Society of Princeton gem called the Updike Farmstead. It was built in 1696 and is located near a Revolutionary War battleground. I wish I had brought my camera but I had gone to learn about growing vegetables from the manager of the Princeton Farmers Market, not to sightsee.

Here are some of my notes:

• Get your soil tested to learn its composition and pH levels
• Add compost to your soil for organic matter
• Well rotted manure smells wonderful
• Don't mulch with wood chips because they decompose slowly and add acid to the soil (those are good things in Colorado)
• Mulch between your vegetable rows with a layer of newspaper covered with hay
• The more worms in your soil, the healthier it is
• Don't use chemical fertilizers or weed killers -- they're petroleum-based and kill beneficial organisms and nutrients
• There are no worms in the adjacent field where they grow GMO corn
• There are adults who still don't know about Monsanto and its plot to flood the planet with its RoundUp ready genetically modified corn and soy beans
• And most importantly, start small
• Pick a manageable area and get to know your soil
• I'm definitely going to have to scale back my ambitions
• The Boulder Farmers Market is much admired

Then, on my evening walk with Chili, I came across a bunch of those solitary ground nesting bees that I had learned about a week before. I just saw the nests. The bees must have been busy polinating early blooming flowers. The nests look exactly like what I used to see annually in Boulder with hundreds of bees swarming aroung little holes in the ground between the trail and the fence behind the Wonderland Lake Ranger's Cottage.

I have always enjoyed watching the seasons change on my walks with Chili. Now, in a new place, with growing knowledge and awareness of what I see, the benefits of our daily exercise are even more special.

Plotting Along

It's been raining for the last couple days and I'm learning from my friends in Boulder that they had no moisture in March -- which is usually the snowiest month. Yet, they are optimistic and their vegetable beds are composted and ready for planting seeds for cool weather greens. 

Veggie Garden

Herb Garden

I've stayed nice and warm and dry inside and wandered all over the Internet finding websites, podcasts, apps and an on-line Garden Planner application to help me plan -- or dream about -- a veggie garden and an herb garden. I'm in the free 30-day trial phase. Then, it's $25 a year. They send you emails reminding you when to plant what.

Useful garden plot planning advice from some of the podcasts:

• Start off small and slow
• Don't plant more veggies than you need to feed your family
• Keep the garden in view of where you eat breakfast so you'll be reminded to tend it
• Try not to over think or implement too much too soon (all the information on the web about companion planting, crop rotation and beneficial insects can come later)
• Keep tools simple

It's easy to get carried away in the dream stages. And it's obvious that I will need wake up and make my plans more realistic. There's still time.