Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
7/28/00 - I began this week's gardening by starting to work on the large Sun bed that runs along the north-east side of Gertrude's garden. This is the flower bed that, because of its location and the location of the trees that shade our garden part of the day, receives the most hours of sunshine. Probably because of its prime location, the Sun bed is the widest and most heavily planted of our garden beds, and, therefore, certainly the most difficult to cultivate. Years ago I prided myself on the neat edging of all of our beds. I would take a sharp spade, stretch a string along the bed, and cut a clean angled edge--the only problem was that each time that I did this I widened the bed if only slightly. Now I am satisfied, after I cultivate, to clean out the existing edge with a trowel. All of which brings me to the advice that you do not make (or enlarge) your beds beyond the distance that you can reach when you are working on them--which in my case means the distance that I can reach from my trusty kneeler. If this advice comes too late and some of your beds are already too wide--as some of mine are--there is a solution. Most garden marts sell large flat stones that you can place strategically alone or in groups within your beds so that you have places where you can stand or kneel to work.
As I work in this year's garden, I continue to think about and plan for next year's. I notice, for instance, that my penchant for edging all of the beds in Gertrude's garden with flowers creates some problems. This year, for example, I had a good supply of white and yellow Star zinnias; I used them, therefore, to edge a number of the flower beds: the Birdbath bed, the circle and curb beds in front of the house, and the Sun bed on which I was working the first part of this week. One of the attractive features of the Star zinnia is the way that it cascades its flowers rather than holds them upright. Unfortunately, however, this means that if you plant along the edges of your beds you will have flowers drifting out onto your grass, so that grass-cutting, even with the reel-type mower that I use in the back garden, becomes difficult if you don't want to chop up your lovely zinnias. Even in hand-clipping the edges, I have to lift the zinnias to cut the grass. Next year, therefore, I am going to try to use only upright flowers such as balsam or begonias to edge beds. But I am also going to try to do less "row planting" and more massing of varieties and colors to achieve better blends and contrasts--in other words, to "paint" my garden.
I enjoy taking and showing you close-up pictures of individual flowers or flower beds, but I think that you would also like to see general views of Gertrude's Garden. This week's picture was taken from the corner of the terrace and shows most of the back garden. To the right is the new fence that connects the terrace and garage. You can see, in order from front to back, the First Triangle bed, the Birdbath bed, the Second Triangular bed, and the Rectangular bed. To the left is a part of the Sun bed, and to the right the garage with its stone-lined bed and the tall azalea and lilac bush at its end. Until I switch to a digital camera (which I may do next year) my pictures will never be current; this picture, for instance, was taken three or four weeks ago, and does not show many of the flowers blooming now.
8/4/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
7/21/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
Last Year's - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
ntgates@worldnet.att.net