Starting To Look Like Home

Home: Defined by some as where the heart is. Home, for me is where my garden is, with emphasis on the my. Imagined, created, planted and tended by me, that is my home and my heart. Guided by the lessons learned from a lifetime of trial and error, this newest Fairegarden is coming along. It is starting to feel like home. There is still much to do, but quite a lot has been accomplished in the span of one year and a couple of months.

It began as a blank slate of crabgrass lawn in the summer of 2014. The utilities were called to mark out the cables and lines buried under ground. It was a graffiti of colors once all the spray paint was applied. It’s a good thing I wasn’t going to dig very deeply in the area now referred to as the mailbox bed.

The grass was cut on the lowest setting, newspaper and mulch was added. Plants that had been dug, potted up and brought from the old garden were planted with love and high hopes. It was a start.

Among those plants were several grasses and shrubs, including my beloved pink muhly grass, Muhlenbergia capillaris. Most were seedlings extracted from the gravel paths at the old house, not yet blooming size. The three pots were originally planted around the mailbox. In late winter of 2015 those were dug and divided into fifteen smaller pieces, planted at the back of the ever expanding mailbox bed. The reason for this siting is that the muhly tends to fall forward when in full bloom and it would have been out in the street and run over by the mail lady and just not look its best around the mailbox. A gardener has to be quick to reckon with mistakes like that.

Time passes and July sees that the mailbox bed plantings have grow well, some too well as various additions are swamped by their neighbors. The island of grasses and first rosemary then lavender has become home to grasses, shrubs, asters, salvias and lamb’s ear, among others. The Monarda ‘Raspberry Wine’ front and center was hiding in with some black mondo grass and proved to be a happy surprise.

There are flowers and butterflies, pollinators and weeds as the months roll by. And then, it begins. The hint of pink feathery inflorescenses peek from the blades. It takes more than a month for this peek to peak.

This is my view from the chair where most of my sitting is done, inside by the window with the laptop ever at the ready and outside on the porch. Waiting with the camera for just the right back lighting has proven challenging. Everything is different at this new garden from the old north facing slope. The backgrounds are not cooperative as there are other homes all around. But that gleaming pink washes away any bitter feelings. It’s going to be all right here.

The view from the street is not as wonderful. But that’s okay. The garden is for me, it feeds my soul.

This keeps me going forward, not looking back, ever onward.

As does this.

~~~

* Here is an older post that contains links to all of the muhly posts over the years if you are interested in learning more about this special grass. Pink Muhly Grass-Muhlenbergia capillaris 2013

Frances

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