Gardening

I worked in my garden one day last week. I raked out leaves, and cut back dried up growth from last summer. I found the places where the snap dragons had dropped their seeds and already tiny new two-leafed plants were coming up. I saw where the coreopsis that was new last year has spread, so it will be much fuller this summer. The bee balm, which is forever spreading, has many, many new little plants coming up in the area around the mother plant. Some of those will need to be removed so the bee balm doesn't take over. I trimmed back a low, creeping, blue flowering plant whose name I've forgotten. It is at the edge of the bed, which is lined with stones, and it loves to crawl over the stones toward the lawn.

My garden is in a bed I put in on the side of the garage a couple of falls ago. It is about two thirds perennials, with space to mix in some annuals, and then in the rest of the space I've put in tomatoes, peppers, and green beans. In the last two springs I planted mixed lettuces from seed along the edge of the entire space, and it made such a pretty border. We ate and shared with neighbors much of that lettuce, and let the bunnies have the rest.

I've had just two summers with my garden. As I cleaned it out last week, it felt a little funny to think about the fact that I won't get to see everything in that garden bloom this summer. The bee balm blooms around the 4th of July, so I might just get to see that. Some of the other flowers don't bloom until later, though, some not until near the end of August. I won't see those.

But I wasn't sorry to be working in the dirt, pruning the plants. I love that task. And as I did it, it was interesting to think about who else might get to enjoy the flowers this year.