Where To Look

There is a lot of garden out there already. There is also plenty of room for more. My expansion plans are only in the initial exploratory phase. I go exploring and do some minor editing while I plot the placement of paths and case the forest for interesting plants.

It's easy to plant things and forget them or where exactly you put them in all this space. Sometimes you have to know precisely where to look. Looking a lot helps. That doesn't prevent surprises.

After a while one hopes a tiny twig will grow large enough to become obvious and hunting for it won't be necessary anymore. This is the best bloom the baby Fothergilla have ever had. They haven't even been frozen by a late freeze, as is so often the the way it is up here.

The relocated Showy Orchis is looking mighty fine. It is small, so you do have to know where to look.

A red Japanese Maple with Mayapples. Will this be the year the Japanese Maples don't get zapped and actually have a chance to grow? The new growth gets frozen so often in the spring I was beginning to tire of them and give up.

I spent another three hours editing the east end of the sunny utility meadow. I hadn't quite made it down to the far end this year. The slope below the roadside vegetable garden was keeping me busy.

The meadow is looking pretty darn good, even tidy, the best I have ever seen it in all these years. It is off to a good start for the season. I have been noticing more diversity of plants and what could be a bumper crop of Beebalm this year. I'd like to start seeing some of the seeds I have been adding showing up as plants.

I edit like an obsessed person and this is what the forest does without me. The big difference is the amount of sun. Deep shade is its own form of weed control. In sunnier places, stronger measures are needed.

In the deep forest I can garden just by making a path and picking up sticks. That will be the bulk of the garden's expansion. In there I can look every where without hunting for anything. It will all be a surprise.