The garden.

A few years ago, readers of this blog may remember, the megastore garden had a run-in with the law. Since that day, we have strived to manage the meadow in the front so that it is in compliance with the regime of tidiness called for by municipal code, if only barely; but we have also sought to adhere to our own aesthetic and spiritual tendencies. This meant a big redesign of the front yard, which still has untidiness and free-spiritedness to recommend it. Basically, we took out almost half of the sod and replaced it with flowers and plants in pots. It is messy and, especially at certain moments during the year, almost unbearably beautiful, if I do say so myself. And I do, I do say so.

Anyway, this morning I planted all the pots. It was nice to find that some of them have resurging plants in them already--miniature roses that are striving mightily to be medium sized, mints, a little blue flax which is a prodigious, not to say promiscuous spreader. So I tucked new plants in around the old. I've mixed vegetables, herbs, and flowers. I have geranium, which reminds me of my grandmother, marigold, lavender, rosemary, basil of all stripes, many tomatoes. I also planted a handful of delphiniums in a mostly sunny spot. I am hopeful about these. I also feel I may need to buy a few more pots, and why not? More is more around here.

We also may dig up a little more lawn. Right now, there are perennial geraniums and columbine and lemon balm growing in the lawn, and the thyme continues its encroachment (go, thyme!), with bees aplenty when it's flowering. So if we dig up a little more grass, I say we add more blue flowers, of which I am a fan. Maybe the flax will help out there.

Here's a little of what I did this morning. It looks more green than flowery, but that's where it all starts.

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Meadow update.

This has been a year of practically no gardening on my part. I don't know what that was about, really, except I couldn't get it together, or get motivated, or whatever, to plant almost anything. That means that we were able to see what there was, to let the things already there show their stuff. For instance, some teeny little phlox plants I'd put in the front flower bed a couple of seasons ago bloomed modestly this year. Next year, they should be even better. So there were some pluses to my utter lack of ambition.

The front lawn, aka the meadow, is making progress, but within the bounds of the law. We have kept the grasses (some dare call them weeds) at an unflagrant height (under 12") by weed whacking, for instance. But the creeping thyme keeps on creeping--one might describe the process as the thymification of the lawn. Flowers like columbine, flax, and true geranium have bloomed and are flourishing amongst the grass. My plan is to create a path of stepping stones through the middle of it, and let the plants keep on doing their work.