DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is crazy gardening time of year in north Texas! Not to make you folks in cooler climes feel bad--spring will assuredly come for you on its own sweet schedule. Ours is actually arriving a bit late. We are usually setting out tender plants the last couple of weeks in March, but we've had a cool spell so I have delayed a bit (as in too lazy to cover things when it drops into the forties...)
But this weekend it's time to make lists, stock up on potting soil, and hit the garden center. All our roses are bursting into bloom as well, and it was as I was trying to find all the tags for my David Austin roses that I embarked on this little garden history journey.
For years, I've stuffed the tags from the plants I buy (or at least the more interesting ones) into this ribbon-tie journal--
but I have to admit I hadn't actually looked very carefully at the book or its contents in ages. When I opened the book and sorted through it, I did find most of my David Austin tags (not all pictured!)
And so much more. I hadn't realized how long I'd had this book, but look at the opening page.
1997!!!! We moved into this house and its huge, hideous, neglected surrounding lot in August of 1995. It was a daunting prospect, I can tell you, but I was determined to landscape, and to do it with as many native, environmentally friendly plants as possible. By winter of '97 (according to the book!) we'd found a native-friendly landscaper and started a plan.
I found this very carefully labeled drawing I'd made of the front beds.
I've no idea what happened to the original landscaper's plan, but it's fascinating now to look back and see what's changed and what's survived in more than twenty-five years.
Here's a peek at the second from right front bed on the plan, taken last June.
I think only yucca, yarrow, and skull cap have survived from the original plants in that bed, although we have Turk's Cap, echinacea, native asters, rudbeckia, pavonia, and flame acanthas galore in other beds.
And although I talk a pretty good "real gardener" game, I've realized that the truth is that I am actually a very haphazard one. "Oh, something died? Let's stick something else in and see what happens!"
But every year is a challenge and an adventure, the birds and insects love it, and we hope we encourage our neighbors to plant more interesting and climate friendly stuff.
How about it, readers? Any organized gardeners among you? (I know there are a few of you!) Or do you "garden creatively," like me?
