Saturday, December 24, 2011

Can This Garden Be Saved?

I may just have to stop traveling south to the land of azaleas and camellias. It pains me to see a garden that was so magical for me as a child go bad. The maintenance gardener in me knows that with some routine effort all could be well. The trouble is the needed effort is hard to come by and there are not enough funds to purchase it in sufficient quantities.



This is just one of the problems in an old garden trying to go bad. There is an azalea beneath this potato vine. The potato vine has run amuck with a host of other vines and pernicious weeds. If only the weeds were pulled and the vines were cut on a routine basis, an old garden would see life anew.



You know I couldn't help myself. I pulled some weeds and cut some vines. It amounts to a single drop in a giant bucket.

I just may have to stop traveling south to the land of azaleas and camellias. It pains me to see a garden that was so magical for me as a child go bad. My maintenance gardener self is on edge.



I planted camellias in a new garden further north. I am pushing it zone wise. They are the newer cold hardy type, but I have pushed it to the edge of this breeding expansion. Maybe they will survive, maybe they won't.



If they live I can plant more. More is good. Then I won't need to worry about missing any camellias further south. The camellias my grandmother planted in a magical garden will fade to a fond memory. Her garden may disappear, but the gardener lives on in me.



It would be nice if the garden could hang on for another ten or twenty years. I would do it if I could.



My grandmother's garden needs a gardening angel right now.



Anything is possible. Decline is also inevitable and unavoidable and can only be held at bay with effort.

8 comments:

Nell Jean said...

I hope your Grandmother's garden is rescued. I hope when I'm gone, they go ahead with the bulldozer before mine falls into disgrace.

Merry Christmas

Anonymous said...

Have a great Christmas, Chris.
Sallysmom

Anonymous said...

I think we all know deep down that our gardens are evanescent and will quickly return to nature when we are gone (like us). It's not like a painting or something. We just picked the wrong passion - not!!

bev

Christopher C. NC said...

I hope so too Nell Jean. We hover on the edge of disgrace, but bulldozers would break my mother's heart. Merry Christmas to you.

Merry Christmas Sallysmom.

Bev not the wrong passion at all. It keeps us active, healthy and involved. The garden and gardener age together in sync it seems. Somehow it is easier to accept it of our physical selves than to see it happen to our gardens.

Barry said...

taminasAloha, Chris, and Mele Kalikimaka!
What you have done already has been sufficient to give us all hope for the future. Good deeds are rewarded, many-fold. Keep on paying it forward.

Lola said...

Gardens are the love of a special person that resides & cares for the land. I do hope that your Grandmothers garden will survive & somehow be taken care of. Mine will not go past me, I'm sure of it. What I have done will be destroyed by the next.
Wishing you & yours a Merry Christmas.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I know your Grandmother is proud that you have such good memories of her garden. Sometimes we just have to let go of gardens past. Bring all those lovely memories and plant them in your Northern garden.

Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Chris, can you take cuttings of those camellias? Would they root this time of year?
Sallysmom