Found Time



Things are finally slowing down for me.  I have been playing softball two nights a week and sometimes on the weekend since late April.  But our softball season finally ended with a pizza party last night.  Not having something scheduled on Monday and Tuesday nights now seems like a luxury.  Somehow, that extra time on the calendar makes it feel as if other pockets of time have opened up.

I know this Moonflower bloomed a couple days ago for the first time but this is the first open bloom I have seen.

This morning, for example, I found a few extra minutes to wander in my garden before my work day began. 

A Zephyr Lily about to open.  Maybe tomorrow morning I will have a chance to check on its progress.

Most of the design-oriented blogs and books I have read suggest planting colors that will look good during the time of day that you are most likely to actually be in your garden.  I always thought that time was going to be late evening so I have planted a lot of whites and pale blues. 

I know containers "should" have a thriller, a filler, and a spiller but I gravitate toward the spillers.
This container includes both sweet potato vine and bacopa.

But more and more I am finding time to enjoy the garden in the morning.  The light is soft and gentle.  It is quiet in my neighborhood.  There are fewer things competing for my attention.  There is still water on the plants.  It feels tranquil and contemplative. 

Water glistens on the late summer growth of an Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Orangeola'.

I have noticed, too, that when I take a stroll in the morning, I am less likely to feel compelled to do something.  In the morning, I don’t need to prune the roses, pick the weeds, sweep the patio, or move a clump of grass because there will be time and enough daylight for those things later. 

This is a phlox hybrid called 'Intensia Blueberry' by Proven Winners.  It's a new plant for me.
It could use some deadheading, but there will be time for that later on.

As autumn approaches, as the summer sun sets earlier, as the heat begins to relinquish its sway, I am thankful for extra time because I know that a gardener’s fall is filled with new chores, new things blooming, and new ideas.  I want to taste and to savor these beautiful mornings and stolen moments.  I want to have my fill and get fat on them because I know that soon enough the memories of these moments will need to sustain me until spring when everything, including softball, begins again.    

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' - A common Japanese maple with uncommonly beautiful coloring in spring and fall.

This is my back corner bed.  It is filled with plants and it is filled with chores.
But this morning I just enjoyed it and didn't try to edit anything.

Business and Blossoms

My work life changed recently (busier and more stressful) and it's left me feeling a little out of sorts so blogging has taken a back seat the last couple of weeks.  But spending time in my garden has been as important as ever to me.  I find that when life gets hectic, my time in the yard becomes more valuable.  

Although I've managed to keep up on a few of the important gardening tasks like planting my tomatoes and zucchini, I haven't had a lot of time to clean up and make everything tidy the way I like it to be.  And that bothers me some times.  

But then I remember a poem that was featured in American Life in Poetry* a couple years ago written by Carol Snow:  

Tour
Near a shrine in Japan he'd swept the path
and then placed camellia blossoms there.

Or -- we had no way of knowing -- he'd swept the path
between fallen camellias.

****

Here's a picture I took a couple days ago.  It's a picture of a mess.  But I think I'll just leave it this way for a few days.

Orange blossoms and bacopa

*If you are at all interested in poetry, I highly recommend subscribing to American Life in Poetry which is a program started by former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, and supported by the Library of Congress.  Every Monday you will receive an e-mail with an introduction from Kooser and a brief poem like the one above.  I am consistently inspired, touched and edified by these poems.