Sprucing up the garden

My mother used to say if you really wanted to get your house clean – invite company! The same is true of a garden. If you want to spruce it up and make it look beautiful, invite over some people to see it. A lot of people.

So I did! In two weeks my garden will be on display through the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Connoisseur’s Garden Tour (for information and tickets go to https://atlantabg.org/events-exhibitions/gardens-for-connoisseurs-tour/).

It’s extraordinary what 6 hours a day of gardening will do to a place. My granddaughter seemed incredulous and asked what I did out there all day? Gosh, where to begin? There’s the digging and the soil amending, the planting and pruning, the feeding and watering, the moving and moving back. To say nothing of the dreaming, planning, fussing and cajoling that goes on.

Amazingly enough and of course, knock on wood, thing are budded up and should open into graceful bloom at just the right time. I have big fat iris buds, pointy rose buds, the knobby promise of astilbe, and stalks of foxgloves that are just beginning to open at the base. An unusually cool spring has postponed the demise of the blue phlox and forget-me-nots, though the azaleas are mostly gone.

I have had a fairy god-mother working hard for me, as well she should! I have created a magical and wonderful home for her complete with formal garden and crystal lined walkways. I doubt she’ll have much time to sit and play her tiny piano – or gather friends for badminton – for there is much work left to be done. She and Mother Nature and I (The Mighty Triumvirate) will be busy up until the very last moment. Of course we do have the help of our friendly garden gnome as well.

It’s been an interesting experience, practically living in my garden for the past six months. I am acutely aware of the weather, and of my vulnerability. I watch the life cycle of the plants, particularly when they bloom and how long the flowers last. And, I am intimately familiar with every square foot of this space over which the Triumvirate reigns.

I have fallen deeply and completely in love with this small part of the earth that I call home. What a joy, what an honor to help things grow and bloom. And what high hopes I have that come Mother’s Day weekend my garden will be lush and full and colorful. But of course, Mother Nature has the final say on that.

I hope that you will all come and enjoy the garden May 8 and 9. It’s going to be glorious. And maybe, just maybe, the fairies will be playing a little music.