Garden Notes

[poliphilo]

The plants I rescued from the gutter are putting out little purple flowers. I can't identify them. I'm not good at flowers.

There aren't many flowers in our garden (its only a back yard really) but there's lots of greenery. Ten years ago we demolished a shed and made a flowerbed. Now it's a thicket. There's a eucalyptus tree, two holly bushes, a hawthorn and other things I can't name, all bunched up together.

I believe in happenstance. I like to be surprised and if plants just turn up in the garden- self-sown- I'm delighted- though there's not much room for that to happen any more. Our stoutest feature is an ash tree that grew- of its own accord- out of a grave of one of our cats. (He was a ginger Tom called Kennedy who broke his neck in a fall off a neighbour's roof- cat's are sure-footed? not this one!) I keep it pollarded so that it doesn't completely take over.

I don't do much to maintain the garden. If there's a dry spell I'll slosh a bit of water around and that's about it. And it's not just laziness (though it's that as well.) I want the garden to be independent of me- to be other. I like to step out of the house and feel I'm no longer in a world I've crafted.

Comments

[archyena.livejournal.com]

You know, that's made me think, what about having basically drainage planters on the house as opposed to gutters? Oooh! Imagine that, a thought:

Your gutter would have holes about an inch (~2.5cm) from the top of the gutter at the level of a fill of smal rocks (not pebbles) like the ones you sometimes see in rock gardens and soil below that. The top layer ought to allow water to flow out of the planting gutters into a second, larger gutter into which the planter is nested. Below the rocks, good gardening soil. I don't know how well it would work, though, but it was a thought on how you could keep that look of aesthetic decay of a perfectly ordered system (in this case, gutters) without ruining their functionality. That ought to work, a lack of nutrients and growth space should naturally dwarf most saplings. Not sure if it would work so well in the wet weather you have in Britain, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's an ingenious idea. It might even be a money-making idea. You should think about developing it. Seriously.

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I love suprise volunteer seedlings- and am working at doing a lot of native plant plantings in the next couple of seasons, mainly because I know that I can leave them alone and let them do what they do, and they'll be fine.

BTW, I think you wandered into a dream of mine last night, or vice-versa. In the dream we shared a property-line at the back edges of our respective yards. You were crouched down near a shrub of some kind, examining what appeared to be a vole. It was hanging upside down from the shrub, one of its rear feet having been tied to a branch with a length of purple silk ribbon. It did not seem to be struggling or uncomfortable at all. I think you tied it there for some reason. It did not seem the least bit strange.

I said "hi" & you said "good morning" & we went on about our business.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good morning, neighbour!

Grand old English custom- vole-dangling.

If your vole spins right
All will be fair and bright.
If your vole spins to the left
You'll be of sun bereft!

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

ahhh...must be one of those mysterious folk practices that you hear about, doubtlessly of ancient origin...