I just want to thank the previous owners for going to all the trouble of planting these beautiful irises for me. How thoughtful of them. And they didn't even realize they were doing it.
But in a way, that's what gardening is all about. Taking a spot of earth and making something good happen there for the person who happens to encounter it. It is an art to produce a beautiful garden and I am a student of that kind of artmaking these days.
My first lesson was Soil. A good foundation can make the results astounding. And we have all the ingredients sitting here just waiting to be used. Yesterday I mucked out the chicken pen and found GOLD! We lay straw in their run and it gets wet from rain, pecked and stepped on by the chickens, not to mention pooped upon, and then the mud under it gets worked into it, and the earthworms rise to mix it all up.
When I get to it, it is a fine crumble, loaded with HUGE worms and covered with a creamy biological sauce, just right for my garden beds.
We also have an abundance of leaves. Leathery leaves from oaks, poplars, elms and maples. A few pine needles are in there too, and they all get blown into a heap in three or four places around the property. They will be layered in my new Lasagna Gardening bed today.
Out in the orchard, or as we like to call it, the rice paddie, we have the legacy of blueberry bushes from the previous owner.
Real blueberries! I can't believe how blessed I feel to see these little still green orbs growing here. I have never seen a real blueberry on the bush until now. And we have zillions. I found out that our two kinds of bushes are necessary for cross pollination, so we are keeping the duds that have no berries, as their flowers must have aided in creating these. I am feeling really happy that we have two refrigerators and the one on the back porch will keep these extras for the winter.
But I am most excited about the peaches. Four trees with a variety of different colors and sizes including one white peach type. So far there are no pests, but I am keeping an eye on them.
I realized the other day that we lived in our old house for almost 20 years, and it seemed like just yesterday that we bought it and moved in with a baby Popeye and two other long lived cats. Twenty years went by so fast, and if I live here for twenty more I will be 80.
Eighty!
What will happen in these next twenty years? Am I building a garden for the next owner as well as myself? I guess so. I HOPE she will be as pleased and grateful as I am.
You have such a great variety of fruit on your homestead, yummers! Gardening for the future is a good thing. Your forthcoming lasagna beds are verra interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing how you do with them.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a grateful spirit. It's an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteYes we are all just passing through, creating and leaving it for the next generation. the main thing is to enjoy the journey and it sounds like you are.
ReplyDeleteI thought I had tuned into Bubba Buford from Forest Gump... apple pies, applesauce, apple fritters, apple dumbplings, apple brown betty, apple.....
ReplyDeleteNow I'm hungry!
I love the thought that what I plant today is a legacy for someone coming after me. I'm not much of a gardner but I have planted lots of rosemary and lavender in the bed around my deck and they are huge now after 5 years. I brought peonies from my mother's best friend before she died (they were her mother's before her!) and they bloom for me each year. And I have an azalea from both my father's funeral and my husband's father's funeral - the memories we have won't go with the new owners (hopefully 20 years down the road) but the beauty will.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are just renters here on Mother Earth....and so many do not pay their rent. It's so easy and cheap: a little love, compassion and a few good deeds.
ReplyDeleteI like the comment about "duds." You DO realize those are the males.....snort.
teri
What a wonderful sentiment about leaving the legacy. You are indeed blessed.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was doing the same after living in a century old house on Main Street for over 25 years. I put countless hours (and money)into landscaping and planting. Everywhere I live, I plant smoke bushes (Cotinus) for good luck since my grandmother had the most gorgeous one. When I sold my house 5 years ago, the new owners ripped out all the landscaping and put red mulch all around the gorgeous red brick house. They added a red roof to top it off. Talk about a artist's nightmare!!! Then they cut down all the smoke bushes. May their non-artist souls rot in someone's compost pile!
Twinnie Susan