Monday, April 20, 2009

To Garden Journal or Not...

Early this morning I was thinking about my garden as you can see it looks rather shabby. The snow is gone, and all that is left is a blanket of debris. This debris protects the plants late in the fall before the first snows. However, in the spring it looks, well, rather ugly. That brings me to what made me smile.

The first winter we were in the house, I realized that this garden could be no less than fabulous. Yes, I said fabulous, see my husband is really garden savvy and I am a fast learner. I set out reading everything I could on gardening. My creative juices were used in new and wondrous way. One day I read about a journal for the garden. How sheik, I was going to show the gardening world that I could do this. Like they cared.

As the plants were placed lovingly in the ground. The plots that I named for their locations were complete, I went out with my camera and with thoughts of tracking my plants in the future. I designed a simple layout so that I could update it every year.

The summer came and went and the journal settled into the bookcase waiting for it's time to prove its worth. That day came during the next spring, as John and I sat on the porch looking over our charges, the plants, we forgot what we had planted. I sprung to my feet and ran into the house, up to the bookcase and grabbed the journal. Yes this was when I was going to shine.

Funny thing is that there were plants I didn't know I had. I had no clue where they came from. My heart sunk. After the glass of wine and swallowing my pride I ask the question.... did you bring home any new plants during the summer... John said, I don't know. There it was, my heart sored and life was good again.

The journal was placed back on the bookshelf for safe keeping, no updates, no need. What we did decide on was that as springs come and go, we would always wonder where something came from and wondered who brought them home. Only God knows and he is just happy we have built a place that souls feel rest in.

2 comments:

  1. I know what you mean. Years ago I bought a 5 year garden journal so we could track temps, water, care as well as plantings. Then we moved 3 times. It's still sitting on my shelf, partially used from Fl and Canada and not for here.

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  2. How funny! The only way I can remember what was there was to take photos frequently during the growing season of what is blooming...so we can see next year what is where.
    Hopefully this gardening class I am taking will help me get better at this stuff!

    The Retirement Chronicles

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