Kiss the Earth

This morning's garden stroll left me a bit more optimistic about the end of season. Earlier in the week it seemed all was dull and brown. Today, in the muted morning light, some things really stood out. This hyacinth bean has taken off, bloomed and begun to go to seed, all in due time and delightful color.

The vine in this picture twirls around a garage doorway. I like the idea of framing the entrance with sweet-smelling flowers. You come through the door, up the stairs, past the thinned-out vegetable bed and into the rest of the garden.

Also mood-enhancing this morning were the climbing nasturtiums, which I planted in large containers last spring and hoped would trail, rather than climb. Finally, they've begun their downward journey. It took long enough! For the entire summer, these perky little annuals faced up, lots and lots of them filling the pots and, I thought, looking a bit silly for their great big container.

Now they're in scale and looking better, their small, elegant orange blooms a bright contrast to the charcoal gray of the pots.

Nasturtiums don't seem to get much attention, but I do love their perfectly round, lily-pad leaves. If you think you need to plant a whole pack of seeds, realize that every single one will probably germinate, giving you enough nasturtiums to fill the whole thing.

Reminds me of the many seeds, bulbs and plants I put in the ground five years ago when we first moved to this house. In my excitement and ignorance, I failed to note that the soil was compacted and sick. How could I miss that? The yard had been used for years by local kids - generations of them, I'd later learn - as a fun place to toss beer bottles. Nothing productive had been done to it for decades. It was your basic landfill covered with grass. Actually, pathetic grass.

Excited at the idea of finally having space to plant, I happily bought stuff I'd always wanted in a border bed and that first spring, put it all in the ground. What a dope. Almost nothing came up, and what came up failed to thrive. It was sooo disappointing.

Many truckloads of excellent soil and compost later ... well, now I have a jungle, which is another problem. But at least the soil is healthy.

I guess the lesson here is that the more you learn, the more you realize that what's going on underground is vitally important to the health of what you want to grow above ground. Not very glamorous but true, in the same way that nonglamorous things like wiring matter in a house.

All these thoughts popped into mind this morning, as I drank my tea and strolled around the garden. At this rate, I'll be working parttime in no time.

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