In the Garden

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Every year my gardens tend to look a little different than the year before. In my "old age" I am learning to be tolerant of what "looks like it doesn't belong," i.e. weeds, and what is less than perfect, but eager to be there. This year our vegetables are lagging way behind, I suppose due to cooler than normal temps. Hopefully they will catch up soon, but not while I'm "indisposed" in the next few days. This year I added some Knock Out rose bushes, which I'm very pleased with, and I have a few new patches of very proliferous herbs -- very nice.

I was never very fond of these orange lilies that I would see growing in patches at the side of the road. They seemed sort of "weedy." But I never before had patches of garden that just needed something green, and these lilies fall in the category of "eager to grow where they are planted."
They grow wherever I put their little roots, dug up from some other clump, and they fill in spaces that need filled. And then, for just a few days in the summer, the really show their beauty.

This qualifies as "looks like it doesn't belong." It started along a side bed, in a patch of yellow lamium and just kept shooting toward the sky. I squelched the urge to tug it out and waited to see what it would do. It's now four feet tall and developed these lovely flowers on top. It stays!

Happiness is...enough spearmint to keep me in mint iced tea all summer. My brother says it must be from Chernobyl -- these stand about two and a half feet tall.

The Knock Out rose -- it's supposed to bloom all summer with no care whatsoever. So far, so good. Frankly, I got tired of pulling out dead rose bushes each spring.

New cukes on the vine. Another week or so and they'll be big enough for Cucumber Tomato Salad.

And these babies are just the right size, but need a little more hot sun to get red. Mmmmm. I can't wait.

Another "looks like it doesn't belong" but was allowed to stay for those sweet little orange flowers. I have no idea what it is, but it came up all over my garden.



"Yes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life's brief day shall be spent before Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than to strew flowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look, not a word, to avail of the very least actions and do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake and for Love's sake even to rejoice; thus shall I strew flowers. Not one shall I find without shedding its petals for Thee...and then I will sing, I will always sing, even if I must gather my roses in the very midst of thorns - and the longer and sharper the thorns the sweeter shall be my song."
St. Therese

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