The Lighthouse

the lighthouse

13 May 2009

I am gardener, hear me roar

However it happened, I am now enthusiastic about growing things. We went to a garden centre this afternoon, and I cannot begin to convey how happy I was. It wasn't a giddy, excited sort of feeling, but one of content well-being. We browsed in the best window-shopping fashion, admiring and praising how pretty everything was.

Four little plants came home with us, perched very precariously in the bottom of the stroller as we walked back, talking about where to plant them. (Please note the significance of that phrase: plant them. This was meant to be a container gardening experiment to determine how capable and committed we were going to be to the endeavor. Now we're putting things in the ground, discussing shade levels and watering requirements. Uh oh.)

Enthusiastic I might now be, ignorant I still remain. I should have gone back out before I wrote this to note the names of what we got, but I didn't and am now in my jammies so it's too late. I'll do the best I can. One of them is a Red Dragon's Blood something or other, bought for the boys. They think the name is pretty cool. The leaves have the look of a succulent about them. I can't wait for it to fill out and flower. I picked out a Chocolate Chip something. Who could resist that? It's a low, spreading plant which will get pretty little blue flowers on it. The ones I really love are the Glory. Eight little flowers came as a set, red, orange, yellow, and a creamy white. The colours are very saturated, and the flowers are fuzzy-looking. Very pretty! I hope they take ok and will grow well. We also bought another creeper...a something or other I don't remember.

It's amazing: today a shrub (or is it a bush? I'm not sure I know the difference) was pruned, and it looks great. A flower bed was dug around the base of a tree, and a lovely pink rock was placed just so, to offset the Glories. The unknown creeper is in that bed as well.

I'm sure none of that is of particular interest to anyone out there, but this is very exciting to me. I never in a million years would have thought I'd enjoy spending time in a garden centre, and actually want to attempt growing things. Huh. Here's the beef: squirrels are cheeky buggers, and pesty creatures! They are digging holes in the containers we have outside and are hiding their peanuts among our plants! Some mad woman in the neighbourhood walks the paths with a pouch of nuts and tosses them around to feed the bushy-tailed nuisances. How annoying! Drop all the peanuts you want in your own yard, lady! Some people are trying to garden around here!

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