Category Archives: gardening

trying not to kill the beautiful things

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Collector of Hobbies

Japanese maple seedlings wired as bonsai

I blame the YouTube algorithm. It served me up some videos from Herons Bonsai a few weeks back, and now I’m potting up Japanese maple seedlings that would normally be destined for my (currently non-existent) compost pile.

Earlier this week, I unearthed some thin florist wire and some aluminum craft wire from my stash (I’ve also got some heavyweight picture-hanging wire around here somewhere) and made a first attempt at wiring my tiny seedlings’ trunks into the S-shape of an informal upright bonsai.

Last night, I wired a couple of the other smaller seedlings that I had dug up — the ones that seem to be thriving in their new home, anyway.

Today is Mother’s Day… and look what my two favorite guys got me.

The Bonsai Beginner's Bible by Peter Chan and a bonsai growing kit

The bonsai-growing kit contains seeds of four different plants: two conifers and two deciduous trees, one of which is a flowering tree. I’m planning to start with germinating the Norway spruce, as the insert promises that it’s a fast-growing plant.

Now that I’ve been tending the same flowerbeds for eight years, though I’m starting to understand the Long Game. I get that there’s no silver bullet to instantly grow (and maintain) the perfect garden, border, tree, whatever. I’m starting to plan ahead for what the gardens will look like in a few years, leaving volunteer tree seedlings to mature alongside older, weaker specimens that are on their way out. I’m not in a hurry to buy new plants, or to pull up “weeds” that I don’t recognize. Now that my mind has starting thinking bonsai, I’m even contemplating the weed trees and unwanted runner plants as possible future bonsai.

I also get that every year can be a new start if it needs to be. Gardens and the plants in them are living things, always growing and changing. There will always be new volunteer seedlings to shape and nurture — or throw in the landfill.

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Birthday Terrarium

glass terrarium with air plants

My college roomie, Amy, sent me this classy terrarium from Gifted Glass Gardens for my birthday! It’s minimalist and exquisite at the same time, with black sand, preserved moss, Cholla wood, two air plants, a geode, and a chunk of pyrite.

Of course, all of the pieces came shipped in their own sealed bags or containers — thankfully, the terrarium came with assembly instructions and photos. It also came with care instructions for air plants, which I was also glad to see, as I didn’t realize air plants needed to be soaked in water weekly. That would explain why the one I had back in 2012 was so short-lived.

Thanks, Amy! You know me well. 🙂

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: April 2021

Since last month’s Bloom Day, the hyacinths have come and gone, and the earliest of the daffodils have started to fade — including the gorgeous Apricot Whirl variety I planted in the fall, and the striking bi-color daffodil that I finally remembered to move from its out-of-the-way spot in the peony border to a more prominent place along the front walk.

This was the year that I finally got out at the right time and moved my daffs “in the green.” Some folks claim that daffodils can be fussy when it comes to springtime transplanting, and others see their relocated narcissi bloom just fine later that same spring. Thankfully, my experience was more of the latter kind, so I’m well on my way to having my garden path lined with inviting spring blooms!

Not all of the daffodils got re-homed; some of them were already in a perfect massed spot close to the road, where all the passersby can enjoy them.

The west-facing flowerbed that’s visible from the kitchen window is the one I refer to as the Early Spring Border. The grape hyacinth (muscari) and brunnera are just two reasons why. Earlier, there were dwarf reticulated irises, fragrant hyacinths, and a few daffodils; later on, there will be alliums and peonies and camassia.

My neighbor gifted me a pot of columbines a few years ago, and I never got around to getting it in the ground. It finally bloomed in purple and yellow this year, despite my benign neglect… and the strawberry plants that seem to have hitched a ride in the same container have started to spill out and spread into the border. I don’t really mind.

Finally, since the dogwood in the front garden is on its last legs, I decided to spare this redbud sapling that sprung up here a couple years back. We’ll need another tree here eventually, anyway, and clearly this redbud likes this spot.

Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: March 2021

Each year, this is when it begins.

Slowly but surely, the spring bulbs reach for the sun.

This year, in addition to the Reticulated Iris and the very beginnings of hyacinth buds, I also have cream-colored crocuses.

By the next Bloom Day, the daffodils and hyacinths will be in full force… but we mustn’t rush things.

Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”

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First Bloom

Purple Dwarf iris

These dwarf reticulated irises were an impulse buy from a big box store back in the fall of 2016, I believe. Ever since, they’ve been the first pop of color in the Early Spring Border in February or March.

Granted, they don’t deal as well with the March and April snows as their later-blooming neighbors — muscari, hyacinth, daffodils, brunnera — but I welcome their early flash of color every spring, even if it’s brief.