A LITTLE INDOOR GARDENING

I made good use of some very hot and humid days recently by sorting out some of the garden paraphernalia I keep in the little Korean chest in the corner of the living room. Among the stacks of papers are my garden notes, clippings from newspapers, pages of garden ideas I have cut from magazines, and lots of thank you notes from visitors who have been to our garden. This seemed like a good time to organize them into files.
I'm not a keeper of letters. I did once keep a bundle of love letters from David but I burnt them before I got on that plane to come to America! But for some reason I have kept all the cards and notes from people who have been to visit our garden. I'd like to think that some time in the future my descendants will look through this file and learn about how much I loved to garden and share it with others. I know how much I treasure the three cards written by my great, great grandfather to his beloved in the 1840s, and saved down the male line for me to read so many years later. And the excitement David felt when he came across the diary written by his great, great uncle which told of his great grandfather's visit to Australia and his plan to immigrate.

Hand written card from my GGGrandfather

Among many of the letters and cards I received was a favorite which had a photograph of the pot which used to spill water into the pool- long gone and replaced by something more durable. And these two envelopes gave me quite a chuckle. Addressed to the Garden Queen of Austin and Queen mother of Austin gardening. It was nice that he thought that way but very far from a reality. I sent him some of my Monarda and in return he sent me some seeds for my garden.

I ended up organizing the magazine articles, newspaper articles and publications of our various garden tours, into a big binder. But I still need to find a better way to organize that big bulging sleeve of cards. Maybe a better idea would be to just copy and print the contents of each note.
There were lots of photos( taken before a digital camera became an important garden tool) some taken by me and some taken by the visitors and sent to me. It is a reminder of how the garden looked in its infancy.

Would you recognize the garden today? This is how it looked after David finished making those patio stones. Today they have aged and those cracks are home to many self sown plants. I'm afraid it is a weakness I have or is it just my gardening style.

Fall clean up 

And spring in this same garden.

In the front courtyard a photograph of before I planted the Lady Banks rose. It was a visitor on one of the garden tours that asked me if I knew the story of the Lady Banks rose and later sent me some clippings from a National Geographic magazine about the plant hunting expeditions of Sir Joseph Banks and  the origin of the rose's name. The two crape myrtles are long gone although they keep trying to return from roots left behind.

And today. Maybe time for a little clean up, although winter will take care of much of this. Would I ever be bold enough to have a clean sweep so that the rocks would once again be visible?

All these reminiscences were a good thing. This morning I got out in the garden and started the task of removing some of those weedy grasses. But, as always, I just pulled a few here and there preferring to leave it for a few days before I go back and remove more. Once pulled they can never be put back. And then returning heart and humidity drove me back inside the house. But all that is to change in the blink if an eye.