My Imagination Made Real

I weed whacked all the paths, I mean all of them, the Great Lawn and then some in the wild cultivated gardens today. I want them to look good and be traversable when the sisters arrive next weekend. The gardens are show ready again.

Making sure the gardens look good is far more important than making sure the house is clean. I expect them to start spending a lot more time up here one day and wouldn't want the wildness to scare them off. A filthy house won't scare them, particularly Sister #2.

I might also be trying to wow the niece and her boyfriend that are coming along. You never know what if any kind of relationship young people have with the 'aina. Between the floral explosion in the wild cultivated gardens and the fresh produce from the roadside vegetable garden they will be eating all week, I hope to make an impression. That certainly can't hurt.

I kept stopping and staring while I was mowing. Am I really seeing what I think I am?

Ever since I was a wee baby gardener fresh out of college I have dreamed of creating a garden like this. Nature was always my inspiration. Some where along the way the idea of a garden full of wild flowers got lodged in my head. It very well could have been caused by a trip to these mountains as a child.

It only took twenty seven years, but I think I have finally done it. I have a garden full of wild flowers that tower over my head.

I didn't imagine that part. I assumed they would be shorter.

But it is pretty amazing when you walk the mowed paths down there in the Lush and are swallowed inside of a living bouquet. I can live with that.

All it took was being in the right place with the right raw materials.

I certainly had fun with all the outrageous looking tropical flowers on Maui for twenty years. There were next to no herbaceous wild flowers though. I went looking. There is even photographic evidence of me collecting seed of the few there were. And before I left I made every effort to distribute as many Zephyranthes lilies as I could knowing full well they would self sow and bloom where they got enough water.

I wish I could grow them up here on this mountain. I miss my Rain Lilies. I have tried. They died a frosty death no doubt.

There is more than enough to keep me occupied though and plenty of bulbs that will grow here just fine. I should get some colchicums. They look a bit like zephyranthes in bloom.

I think the sisters will be arriving at just the right time for an amazing peak bloom in the tall flower meadow. It's a bit early for some of the mums and asters. There is so much more yet to come. I don't think they will be missed when there is so much else to see.

There will be even more in the years to come. I added four new flowering perennials, that I can remember at the moment, out there in the Lush in just the last two months.

Nature of course is always adding to things as I edit out the unwanted and create open space that needs filling.

All the while I am paying attention to who has the stamina to compete successfully in the tall flower meadow. There are winners and losers.

The garden paths are mowed and ready. The dung piles are artfully covered with pumpkins and squash. I suppose I'll clean my house a bit before they get here. I have to. The clean sister is staying with me.

Seven years ago a little house on the mountain surrounded by wild flowers was only in my imagination. It has been made real.