Happy fall, y’all! I’ve been enjoying the fall temperatures and the praying mantises that live in my garden. These are likely the same babies that I discovered in May on my back porch. Also, the Montauk daisies that I planted last year finally bloomed. The large, foliage of Montauk daisies feels like wax. Montauk daisies, not to be confused with Shasta daisies, only bloom in the fall whereas Shastas are repeat bloomers. This fall, I had both types blooming at once! A few weeks ago, I planted additional ‘Sweet Drift’ roses to finish a pink hedge that borders my neighbor’s fence, and transplanted rosemary and hostas to new locations. I trimmed an overgrown tree that blocked an exterior light and mulched some beds. The garden is ready for winter now. Just in time for a first freeze tonight.
Sea Myrtle also known as Salt Myrtle produces fluffy white blooms, is loved by the bees, and blooms profusely in my area.
The hostas are unfurling and the shrubs are stretching their limbs as everything is awakening from the sleepy winter here in Maryland’s gardening zone 8a. I’ve also been amazed at how rapidly my peonies are growing. I added plant supports that I purchased from Amazon to help support the billowing pink blooms soon enough. Once the peonies are past their peak, I plan on moving the plant support stakes over to my Shasta daisies later in the summer. At the moment, the daisies are only about six inches in height but I know in time they will grow to be nearly two feet tall. I intentionally avoided the grid-style plant support stakes so I could use these rounded ones in different areas of the garden if needed. I have immensely enjoyed seeing the growth of the peonies and hostas in recent days. The peonies have grown so much you can’t even see the support stakes!
The plant support stakes are camouflaged among the peony stalks.
I also recently added affordable, custom eight-inch metal garden tags purchased from Specialty Garden Markers to identify my roses by name and variety at just $1.50 each. They arrived in a week and were easy to place in front of each rose. Meanwhile, my fragrant, yellow hybrid tea rose known as ‘Eternal Flame’ was the first rose to bloom in my garden, reminding me first and foremost, to keep my mind focused on the Eternal and less on the insanity of this world. This rose bush is nearly as tall as me already! I look forward to propagating it and a few others from my garden after their first flush of blooms – I’m going to try anyway!
The pink dianthus and lavender I recently planted have taken root and are blooming beautifully. I look forward to seeing them bloom in full force as the weeks go on. I’ve staggered the pink dianthus in between the lavender to create a romantic border. In a different, distant bed, one yellow lily has exploded in color but for the most part, my various plants are growing and loaded with buds. I look forward to seeing my garden burst forth soon in hues of yellow, pink, purple, and white.
While my garden is exploding in growth, I, too, am growing spiritually as I continue to study Torah/Tanakh, and I’m also expanding my education as I am about to embark on my next college course while working full-time.
Everything is growing good in my life. I guess you could say, “You grow, girl!”
With spring approaching, I’ve been busy preparing my garden for optimal growth. My shed is packed with numerous bags of pine nugget mulch among a variety of garden tools, and I had a small retaining wall recently built in the corner bed to prevent further erosion from the rain. Additionally, tonight, after getting home from work, I quickly pruned and fertilized what I affectionately refer to as ‘The Pink Patch’. The pink patch is a narrow border bed between my home and my neighbor’s property. It hosts several pink rose bushes including ‘Sweet Drift’ and the narrow bed concludes with the hybrid tea, ‘Chicago Peace’ near the garden’s gate. Essentially, I have created a pink hedge – although, at the moment, there is no pink in the pink patch due to the natural effects of winter dormancy. Unfortunately, a stray cat thinks the pink patch is her litter box, which motivated me to prune and fertilize a tad earlier than I normally would because I am hoping the drift roses will unfurl and expand making it difficult for the neighborhood cat to use the rose bed as a restroom. Then again, the stray cat will likely move onto one of my many other flower beds.
‘Sweet Drift’ roses and ‘Chicago Peace’ on the left make up ‘The Pink Patch’ while the wild cane on the right is ‘Earth Angel’.
This bloom of Chicago Peace is past her prime but still a lovely blend of pinks, apricots, and lilac.
The culprit cat.
During this past Sunday’s beautiful sunshine, I created a new garden bed to house a rose bush that I planted last year but I underestimated her size. After seeing ‘Earth Angel’, a fragrant and romantic floribunda, produce long canes during her first year, I recently researched her size in gardening forums (sometimes the size stated on vendor’s websites is not the reality in all gardening zones). Turns out, this rose can get 5′ by 4′ not 3′ by 3′. Similarly, it’s been my observation from past gardens of mine that Sweet Drift’s height and width grow approximately double what the label claims. So, I dug a new hole elsewhere for Earth Angel, pruned her back, dug her up, and transplanted her, gambling that the weather forecast would continue to remain above freezing. Then I made a new bed around her using cardboard to cover the grass, put dirt on top of the cardboard, and spread a layer of mulch to top it all off. Through it all, I noticed the recently erected small retaining wall for the corner bed partially covered the base of two daisies. I subsequently had to transplant them for optimal growth as well, which reminded me that sometimes that is the case for us humans too. Selah.
What’s happening in your garden and the proverbial, spiritual garden of your heart? Is construction, pruning, fertilizing, transplanting, or all of the above needed for optimal growth this spring? Like, subscribe, and comment below.
Be ever-blooming, rose buds!
In March of 2024, a new flower bed and the small retaining wall in the corner bed “bloomed”.
