Kiss the Earth

While lots of folks are headed to the Shore for the weekend, I popped down to Ventnor this morning for a few hours to visit with Jude Yost, who has a lovely garden on her corner property a block from the beach. She told me people stop her all the time to admire it, and sure enough, while I was there, someone did that very thing. And no wonder.

It's a pleasant little space, abuzz with bees and the first Monarch butterfly either of us had seen this summer. Jude's very artistic, and what she lacks in formal horticulture training, she more than makes up for with an adventuresome spirit and an eye for color and form.

I'll be writing about Jude's Shore garden in two weeks, but wanted to share these photos ahead of time. One fun feature in her garden has to do with sunflowers, which are always a cheerful addition. But she rarely has to plant them anymore. Birds and wind off the ocean spread seeds - and not just sunflowers - all over her garden. Some years she has so many sunflowers she has to pull them out!

It sounds rather haphazard, but I assure you, the effect is smile-inducing. Sunflowers are scattered throughout, along the fence and pathway, here, there. Other things are spread that way, too, which might confound a gardener with a spirit less free.

Though I know this sort of thing can take a bad turn and fill the garden with unwanted plants, I kind of like the idea of birds and wind spreading things we like. As Jude says, if you don't like their handiwork, you just take it out and do your own thing.

With thoughts of birds and wind and free spirits, I wish you a great weekend, everyone, Shore or no Shore.

To read about Jude and Clyde Yost's Ventor garden, go to: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/virginia_smith/20070727_In_Ventnor__N_J___a_couple_restore_a_run-down_century-old_home_and_garden_with_oblivious_and_frenzied_energy_.html