Garden Musings

This morning, I stepped outside, planning only to enjoy a few minutes of fresh air before returning indoors to finish un-decorating. But when I looked around our front garden (we have no yard) and saw the work that needed to be done, I couldn’t help myself. Where we live, pentas bloom happily until at least the first frost. At that point, they usually begin dying back to the ground, depending on how protected their location is in the garden. Our pentas are many and huge and most were either partly brown or entirely so. I just couldn’t leave them looking humiliated another day.

So there I was, in my cozy slippers, cutting the pentas back. I still have pansies and snapdragons to plant in front of them. 

Then I noticed that one bed under an oak tree, usually very pretty, was practically empty, especially once the pentas had been trimmed. There were a few small oak branches, a zillion acorns, and even an empty bedding plant container. Really? Yikes. So, I found my clogs and continued cleaning. The weather was sunny and cool, absolutely beautiful.

We have so much to do in the garden during the next few months. Some of it will be rather hard work. Our wood frames are rotting. We’re considering replacing some with cinder blocks. We want to move our fig tree and create a sitting area out in the garden. Our patio is almost entirely shaded all day, so a spot in the sun would be welcome. And there are so many empty spaces. Okay, to be honest, I’m sort of thrilled about that. Not everything works, so it’s an exciting challenge and an opportunity to experiment with plants and maybe discover a few new ones.

The roses that have survived the garden – not as many as I would have hoped – are still blooming away. This morning I discovered a lovely rose bud at the side of the house. It was a nice surprise.

While we usually leave our decorations up until Epiphany, this year I decided to wrap it up early. Of course, if I continue as this morning, they might well still be up in a month or two. 😊
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Wishing you all the best in 2021.