Yarrow

I rarely see common pastel yarrows in gardens around town and wonder why. Because my records and memory are sloppy, I can’t remember when or how it came to be among the flowers in the Garden of Nemesis. I suspect I started it from seed in the house one late winter and later transplanted it outside. I do remember ordering the seeds for the less common red and tall yellow.

 As the yarrow proliferated, I relocated future generations to the front terrace, the berm and to soften the corners of the brick bungalow. It’s a humble plant, content to let its ferny foliage be the backdrop for the more showy flowers. It begins blooming in late May and will do so all summer if deadheaded; it just keeps on until frost.

Some call yarrow a “medicinal miracle,” as its leaves have been used for centuries to heal ulcers, sores and gastrointestinal problems. Its tea will break up a chest cold or a fever. Chew it for a toothache and to heal bleeding gums. Military doctors, even as late as the Civil War, used it as a poultice to staunch bleeding. Modern laboratories now produce synthetic substitutes for yarrow’s natural occurring chemicals. If one wants the real thing instead of its “shadow,” one need walk no further than the garden.

Ah, July

Ah, July; cookouts and kayaking and picnics. It’s the month we long for when we have cabin fever in the deep and dark winter months. Here are a few of the magnificent bloomers:

Liatris Gayfeather

Ballon Flower

Daylily

                                                                                                                            

Oriental Lily

                               

Shasta Daisy

Love in a Mist

Veronica (Fascination)

Bee Balm

Coneflower

The Miracle of Gardening

A gardener should, at the very least, take a walk though the garden daily. When the fruit and vegetable harvest starts coming in the flower garden gets a little neglected. It’s always a relief to wash that last pot and duck outside among the blooms for a little deadheading.

Yesterday I cut back yarrow, trimmed spent blooms from the balloon flowers and weeded along the alley. I also checked for potato bugs, watered potted plants, picked up the trash thrown from car windows and inspected the general health of the garden overall. I’ve found that if a gardener catches a problem early it can usually be reversed.

Bee Balm

I have several places where I can stop and sit for a spell. While I’m relaxing, I take in the wonder of Nature and contemplate the immensity of the mind that created such diversity of beauty. I also become more conscious the burden of caring for that creation. The Earth can certainly survive without the benefit of humans, but we cannot physically survive without the Earth.

He next logical thought would be this: why are we so hell bent on destroying the very environment that sustains us? Is it because we’re thoughtless? Is it lack of education? Is it ego, because we think we can do things so much better than the Creator? Is it laziness? Are we spoiled and self-indulgent children that haven’t yet learned responsibility? Do we feel so worthless and ugly that we need to make our surroundings match? Did the devil make us do it?

Maybe it’s a bit of all of the above. My brain is way too small to figure out solutions to such a huge problem. I do know one thing, however. If we don’t wake up soon and take positive action, the Earth that nourishes our bodies and spirits will be unable to provide sustenance. So, what kind of positive action can we take?

It seems best to start where we are. To begin on our own little patch; whether “rented” or “owned,” it makes no difference. Common sense will tell us no one “owns” anything anyway; not land or even our bodies. We come here from the spirit realm and leave after an allotted time. So what is the point? It must be that our thoughts and subsequent actions are important. Important to what? It has to be spiritual growth.

Kitties in the Garden

Spiritual growth must be the answer, the ultimate goal. I am uplifted every time I plant a seed. Seeds are truly miraculous. Within it is the future. I am truly satisfied and fulfilled and joyful when I later consider the plant that came from that seed. I may eat it or simply enjoy its beauty. So many of us have lost that connection to that seed and the dirt in which grows. We’re lost and don’t know how to get back home.

Plant a seed. Plant it in a pot in the window if that’s your only option. Connect up with the gardener down the street, offer your help. See if there’s a community garden close by. Get at least some of your food from a local farmer who doesn’t poison the land. If you have a little sunny spot, grow a tomato plant. Clean up after yourself and others who are asleep and wish them blessings. Share what you grow and come alive to the miracle of life that pulses and vibrates and energizes.

Live.

Garden Art

Drive around any neighborhood in our town in the summer and you can see what other people consider attractive garden art. It’s as individual as any interior decorating. I admit I tend to go a little overboard when it comes to the trinkets and treasures I display in my garden.

I exhibit some of my sculptures.

 

I love birdhouses; many are gifts from friends, like this log cabin hanging from an old floor lamp.

This is a bird condo my husband made to fit on the porch corner.

He also made this one with a sign that says, "Two Old Crows Live Here"

Chickadees nest here every year.

This is my favorite birdhouse, as my husband made it especially for me.

He also made these wind chimes.

And this copper snail.

A dear friend gave me this metal and stone bumblebee.

We enjoy adding our own personal touches to the Garden of Nemesis.

Unrequited Love, The Ground Ivy Story

It’s a typical love story: Nemesis and me. I belong to Her and She to me. Even though I’ve been most cruelly rebuffed, I will not stop, for to be in her garden is the highest honor. My name is Glechoma Hederacea, but you can call me Charlie. I am totally enamored by the beauty of Nemesis. I guess I said that before. If you expect a photo of me here you'll be sorely disappointed.

Garden of Nemesis 2008

 I love the Goddess’s grass, Her strawberry beds, Her flowers. I’m the perfect companion plant. Give me too much shade and I’ll scoot across the top of others if I have to. I wrap the arms of my runners, some over thirty feet, around, under, over and through. I’m a survivor and I’m here to stay.

Garden of Nemesis 2012

That Caretaker person in the Garden of Nemesis keeps chasing me off before I can even prove my value. She doesn’t want me here and calls me an eyesore and accuses me of murdering other plants by my aggression. Whatever. Maybe I am a little too available.

Sunflowers 2012

It’s in my nature to be smothering and controlling, after all, I’m a Mint and us Mints don’t screw around. Still, the Caretaker has the unmitigated gall to call me CREEPY! Can I help it if I have to sneak around just to say around? As a proud member of the Mint Family, I trace my roots back to the dawn of time. When my ancestors were created, we Mints were given the power to heal people like that Caretaker! When she gets sick, you watch, I’ll be one of the first she calls. I’m just lucky she doesn’t use toxins, or I may have been poisoned by now.

She thinks the stupid grass is so great, why it doesn’t even flower! In comparison, I produce dainty purple flowers every spring. I have a fresh fragrance. I am handsome in my own way. If she ever tasted me…well, she’d cherish and respect me. Instead, she works daily to eradicate me.

Russian Sage 2012

My country cousins have invited me to their rural habitat where I can be largely ignored and flourish uninhibited; I won’t leave. I was here before The Garden of Nemesis and its Caretaker and I will be here long after they are both gone. To resist old Charlie is futile. 

Pond and Brook Creation

A garden, like all of Nature, including human beings, is never finished, unpredictable, dichotomous and forever mysterious. For those of us who speak its language, the fascination never ends.

Pergola in June 2013

 The Garden of Nemesis began as a vague idea that gradually gained clarity as we sat within it. First came the pond, which my sweetheart bought on a whim that first summer, 2001. I almost freaked out because we were faced with two filthy, run-down condemned houses and a weedy lot next door. We were working six days a week, fourteen+ hours a day. I was too exhausted to imagine. He wasn’t. He wanted a place to dip our toes and further imagine.

Pond Area 2003

 So he dug the hole on Sunday, his one day off. We threw up a canopy for shade and bought some lawn chairs. He didn’t stop there, oh no. In 2003, he imagined a miniature, winding brook tumbling water. I have to say, I imagined the pergola and a swing and the old fashioned pump. Together we imagined our little oasis in the concrete desert of a small city.

Brook Creation 2003 

 Pump Base 2003

Pump and Bridge 2012

I complained after pushing the wheelbarrow around the brook structure, thus the “Troll Bridge,” which is the enthrallment of every child, big and small.

The Garden of Nemesis began as a vague idea but now feeds our bodies and lifts our spirits. Winter will come around again and we’ll have only the memories of our conversations under the shelter of the pergola by the pond.

Birth of a Berm

Berms might be the latest craze, but the Garden of Nemesis berm was accidental. It happened like this:

There are two houses on our lot and when we bought the place, a big hump of dirt was between them. We got rain water in the cottage basement, which was slightly downhill from the front bungalow and blamed the hump. One day in 2001, our next door neighbor had hired a guy with a bobcat to do some dirt moving. My husband and I decided to ask the contractor what he would charge to remove the hump. The guy offered us a good price and proceeded to scoop up the first shovelful. Then he asked the fateful question, “Where do you want it?” I had assumed he would take that useless dirt with him!

2004

I gazed out over our empty lot next door, which we had purchased also. He was waiting with his load, so I quickly pointed to the far corner up front. Now we had a pile of dirt, which after the first rain became a mud pile. We shored the whole thing up with the biggest logs we could handle and I started to plant.

2005

It was a great strawberry bed for the first few years and also held whatever I didn’t know what to do with. We gradually replaced the rotting logs with limestone we had picked up from the ditches a few miles north. I must admit, it looked pretty bad for a few years, but the sod was so rich that the strawberries were phenomenal.

2006

The trees planted in 2001 grew and grew and I gradually moved the strawberries elsewhere. Last fall, I finally got around to a more complete refurbishing.

2007

In the front, where it gets the most sun, coneflowers, bee balm and yarrow flourish right behind the shorter alliums and cascading sedum. On the shaded inside, there are hostas, coral bells, flowering tobacco and other shade lovers. In the places where there is filtered sun, daylilies and veronica. We moved the birdbath and added a cement bench to match.

2012

In the late afternoon, I rest on the bench often and enjoy the mud pile that became a berm.

Now

Spring 2013

The Tale of Three Clematis

I have a friend who last year received a clematis plant from the Garden of Nemesis. She was given one of the rare seedlings thrown off by this clematis.

 She said it came up this spring, but had disappeared by the time she came back from her two week vacation. She asked for another one. Unfortunately, this particular clematis rarely reseeds. I’ll give her some seeds and see if she can start one of her own.

 I have forgotten the name of this lovely clematis planted in 2003 but not forgotten is its story. I mail ordered this “red” clematis at a time when I was intent on getting more of that color in the garden. I have since learned that true red, or scarlet, is not so easy to proliferate with perennials.

 Back to the tale…The first summer it looked like it was struggling just to stay alive. The summer of 2004, it was gone and I lamented. I thought about getting a replacement but never got around to it. In 2005, it reappeared and grew like a maniac. Every year since, it’s grown bigger and covers more of the trellis. So I advised my friend not to dig up the “dead” clematis, as it may just be concentrating its energy on root forming.

On my back fence grows the Sweet Autumn clematis planted in 2002.

The two babies I let grow now look better than the mother plant, which I severely cut back and almost killed. The babies grew volunteer on the north side of the fence along the alley. They really like it there as all clematis like shaded roots and the fence provides that while the plant tops the fence and can be enjoyed from both sides.

Sweet Autumn is one of the last things to bloom in the garden. If the weather is warm and the kitchen window is open, its sweet fragrance drifts through the cottage.

In 2005, I planted this clematis with the idea that it would climb the service berry shrub.

Maybe not such a good idea as the garden has matured; the trees have grown and the neighbors build a privacy fence and the poor thing gets no sun now.

A few years ago I decided to move it, but it cannot be dug as its roots are cemented in with those of the service berry. I suppose I could yank it out and take my chances there will be enough root left to plant…