Gardening Sadness

White Begonia

We can’t return, we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

—Joni Mitchell

Today was a sad day in the garden, the first weekend after the first freeze. I spent a good bit of time trimming frost damage from some of my beautiful plants. Then to make it a perfect storm, this is also the day I had to cut the beautiful wedding flowers into bits for the compost pile.

I love finished compost, but it is always sad to have to put such beautifulness on the pile.

So, I’m posting a picture of one of the begonias to remind me that life is a circle. This white begonia is the only one in a whiskey barrel of red ones.

Some of these begonias became part of the compost pile today, along with the wedding flowers and other stuff from the yard. There they will slowly revert to compost, which will feed other plants and bring beauty back into the world.

Balding Jew

Why is this Jew balding?

Something has gotten to my wandering Jew. All of the leaves above the pot were stripped over the course of a week or so. I never did see the pest, but it may have been a squirrel burying its nuts in some of my hanging baskets. One of my begonias has suffered similarly. But that doesn’t account for the middle leaves being stripped from the only coleus that overwintered.

At least all of these plants are starting to put out new growth. Still, I am a little indignant. Pesky Pests!

Garden Song

A late frost made posing all of the plants easier. I had to bring them in anyway.

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

Gonna mulch it deep and low

Gonna make it fertile ground

—David Mallett

I spent much Saturday whipping the front yard into shape. This involved shaving the weeds as close to the ground as I could and edging the driveway and sidewalks. Edging always makes a huge mess because I have an ancient Craftsman edger ($30 courtesy of Craig’s list). So, I broke out the power washer and blew the mud of the pavement.

While I had the power washer out, I went to the back yard and washed the accumulated crud off of the small deck outside the back door. This deck was originally the floor to a treehouse the neighborhood association made us take down last fall, much to Beccano’s dismay. His grandfather built the treehouse when the kids were little, and it had remained hidden for years. Last year, the NA looked harder. It looks much better with the growth blasted off.

Then Suna and I went plant shopping. This year, Suna decided she wanted a red flower garden. Last year, I bought whatever was on sale. This year, we timed it right and were able to stay within the red pallet and within my plant budget. We bought a range of plants, including:

This whiskey barrel had a lone survivor from last year’s garden. I surrounded it with red impatience and begonias, with a little dusty miller to grow over the sides and make the reds pop.

• Begonias
• Celosia
• Dusty miller
• Geraniums
• Gerbera daisies
• New Zealand
• Sweet pea

We also had a few survivors from last year.

• Our fern grew so well last year that I split it in half and repotted it. Both halves overwintered well. One lives in the media room, the other will goes back outside.
• Several of the begonia’s overwintered, despite a lack of care.
• Two or three of our pepper plants look like they’re coming back from the dead.
• The perennials all seem to have perennialed.

That means all of my free time Saturday and Sunday was spent repotting and positioning. I had to bring them all in as soon as I got home from work on Monday. The sweet pea was fairly wilted by a late afternoon cold front that dropped temps to almost freezing, but it seemed to be doing better by bed time.