Gardens That Were and Gardens That Will Be

I went for a slow walk on the mountain across the street after the rain stopped late this morning. My neighbor called and asked me to check on one of the houses. The alarm had gone off. All was well. I took the opportunity to stroll the well maintained roads that weave across the mountain.

This is what a forsythia should look like during it's brief moment of glory. I still don't want one. Too much work for such a short show.



Daffodils continue in a garden that is basically no more. The gardens made by the two original owners are not really maintained by the new owners who now own the whole mountain. The new owners maintain the mountain and its network of roads.



Higher up the mountain I found a huge colony of Larkspur. I'll need to go visit it again in another week or so when it is in bloom. The forest across the street is way tidier than the forest at our place. It is more open with fewer sapling trees and not near the amount of dead fall we have. My best guess about the difference is that a large portion of our part of the mountain is a steep, rocky and wet stream valley that may have been left unused and unlogged. Our part of the forest may be older.

There are a number of random gargantuan boulders over there. It's an eight foot drop to the bottom of this one. Note my shoe in the bottom right.



That white spot in the center of the picture peaking through the bare forest trees is Hale Mana.



Where the afternoon was spent doing a little more gardening in a garden that is becoming. I couldn't quite bring myself to cut down the Miscanthus in the roadside weedflower bed yet. I did dig up one clump of the grass, divide it into five and replant. One division stayed put. One went just above the tail of the snake in the grass to help define the path that will go up the slope through there.



Three divisions went to the right, in the line of the log lying on the ground, where you can see the patch of disturbed earth. That long mossy log pretty much defines the line of my lower property boundary. The Miscanthus will make a quick growing visual boundary to delineate the end of the garden. Of course in another three months if I don't keep it in check that Miscanthus will barely poke up through the Lush that is soon to engulf the garden to be.



Lots of rain has been helping with my planting, dividing and transplanting efforts. The yellow Louisiana Iris eyelashes of the Creation don't look in the least disturbed by their division and relocation. I'll need to keep the Lush away from them too.



It all looks so simple now while the Lush is mowed down, the ground is exposed and only the faintest hints of green are showing. But I know what's going to happen. The tall flower meadow is just waiting to explode.