Gardening: Flowers and Veggies

Every spring, the gardening craze strikes me like one of those spores that takes over an insect's brain and causes them to drive to the nearest Home Depot for trowels. And, like plants and rabbits, the amount that you begin with or budget yourself with grows twofold, fourfold, etc. I was going to skip the garden attempt this year. Then I was going to grow a couple tomatoes. Then tomatoes and lettuce. Then the neighbors gave me peas. Then we talked about improving the front lawn. Then there was a plant sale in Montclair. Then our friends gave us cucumber seedlings. Then there were seeds on sale at Home Depot. Then I visited the plant nursery and it was over. Just over.

I love container gardens. If I had unlimited funds I'd cover everything in moss and succulents and stone planters and giraffes. But, you also have to bear in mind that container gardens, unless they're annuals, need to come inside during winter, and therefore take up every conceivable tabletop/windowsill surface for several months. Same with growing veggies, which require a bag of soil and a bathtub apiece. Do I particularly enjoy the bright orange aesthetic of the Home depot 5-gallon bucket? God no, but for $2.60 apiece that's fine for now. I could even scrounge for restaurant bucket trash if I didn't mind the smell of aged clam juice.

Here is the porch garden:

Cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, illicitly acquired peonies.

Cucumbers and pea seeds that will grow up the railing hopefully.

Hen and chick succulents, coral bells, Irish moss - and a fig tree Tim picked out! Her name is Celeste because she's a Celeste Fig apparently. The only Celeste I know is Babar's wife.

Basil, spinach, fern, avocado - in the seed starters are lupines (Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore)

Then I collected all the broken solar walkway lights, pizza boxes, and discarded styrofoam cups in the front lawn. I felt like Link, searching the hedges but finding empty Capri Sun packets instead of rupees. After the trash had been trashed, I put on spiderproof gloves and collected all the bramble, dead leaves, sticks, pine needles, and faux palm fronds that had been piled under the trees. I filled up an entire paper lawn refuse bag with this crap, and then started on the Dandelion Upheaval.

I then took out my trusty trowel, which broke several plants in from bending out of shape so many times, and was subsequently replaced for a better one, and set to work digging through the dense soil, hacking through tree roots, and accidentally eviscerating worms.

The left side garden - from left, clockwise - purple coneflower, salvia, 2 different colors of dianthus, tulip? (I didn't plant that, it just grew), hollyhock, yarrow

The right-side garden. From top left, clockwise: hosta (also already there, didn't plant), blue Phlox, pink painted phlox, something that begins with an H, 2 lamium plants, foamflower, and no idea.

I'd never heard of foamflower

I impulse-bought these, thinking they'd be good flowering ground cover.

I'll admit that my knowledge of phlox comes mainly from playing Oblivion.

The "woodland garden," planted under the trees and most likely fertilized by squirrel crap. The tall flowers are columbine, the 2 leafy ones are 2 different colors of foxglove, and the little bush in the upper right is faux spirea, or pink astilbe.

Columbine are my favorite flower, and they come in many colors.

 So, we now have a garden. It's a wimpy start, and I definitely won't be living here in years' time to see them flourish into a mighty jungle, but they're low-maintenance perennials, and will grow back year after year with more squirrel resistance. We'll see what happens.

In an attempt to up the impressiveness of these flowers, I've googled pictures of all the kinds I got so you can see what they look like in full bloom. It's like on cooking shows where they have a pre-baked turkey waiting under the counter for the end.

"Coral reef" dianthus

Astilbe

"Dalmation cream" foxglove

Lupines - they grow wild on roadsides in Maine so I figure they can survive in NJ soil.

"summer pastels" yarrow

Purple Coneflower - my mom has these and bees LOVE THEM. Considering that there carpenter bees having a loud threesome on the porch while I was planting the coneflowers, I think everyone will enjoy the flowers.

Hollyhock - they grow really tall.

Peony! Look at it! It's like beautiful ham!