If you haven’t received a notification about a new blog from me in a while, it’s not because of an issue with your email. It’s that I haven’t done an update recently. I have no real excuse, just laziness, I suppose, though truly, I’ve been anything but lazy. Now that the rains have passed, the days are brighter, and the temperatures are drifting closer to the 100˚ mark, I’ve been able to set aside the Seasonal Affective Disorder that had me dragging for several weeks and enjoy working in my yard again.
The larkspur that had so intimidated me went to seed, and I’ve been spending hours every day harvesting the seeds and pulling up the dead stems.
So instead of this:
I now have this:
The cleaned-up garden is not as dramatic perhaps, but lovely nevertheless.
I’m spending way too much time babying my lawn, but I have a hunch that will always be an ongoing process. I’d give it up, but I do so love the green. And besides, what else would I do? I’m already reading more than I want, and although I’m still playing games on the computer, I’ve cut way back. A few weeks ago when I lost the internet for a week, it got me out of the habit of spending hours and hours on the computer. Now I do other things, like paint-by-number or watch movies, both rather mindless activities. And, as I said, I spend a lot of time outside.
I wonder at times if I have too much invested in my yard, not just money but emotions and work and thought, but when I’m not dealing with S.A.D., I do find gardening worthwhile. So many pretty things to see!
Daisies.
Trumpet vines.
Daylilies.
Hollyhocks.
Madagascar periwinkle.
Blanket flower.
If things go as planned, I should have flowers of some sort from now until the first frost and perhaps even beyond. I’m becoming rather fond of fall bloomers — the foliage is pretty in the summer, and then when other flowers have died out, the chrysanthemums and New England asters take over.
I’ve done all the planting I’m going to do this year, so now my time will be spent weeding, cleaning up all the detritus from nearby trees that has blown into my yard, as well and continuing to expand my garden. There’s still rather a large swath that has never been touched, so I have to dig up all the weeds and other unsightly vegetation so I can plant . . . hmm. Maybe more wildflowers.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
June 27, 2023 at 2:32 pm
What a wonderful garden, enjoy it and all the beauty you are growing there. 🌸🪴🌿
June 28, 2023 at 6:07 am
Thank you!
June 27, 2023 at 2:47 pm
You have such beautiful flowers, Pat. I wish I had your driver and green thumb. It has turned hot & muggy here, so anything I do is early in the morning. I try to go for walks when possible.
June 28, 2023 at 6:08 am
My walks are very short nowadays. After spending two or three hours in the yard, I’m too exhausted to do anything.
June 28, 2023 at 7:41 am
That’s why I go for walks early in the morning. I have been for 1 already today and trimmed the bushes by the driveway back. It’s too muggy to do anything else.
June 28, 2023 at 7:51 am
It’s been muggy here, too.
June 27, 2023 at 5:26 pm
Wildflowers are lovely. I have a soft spot for ‘au naturel’ here and usually allow the moss, ferns and salal to grow even where I didn’t intend them to. We’re surrounded by evergreen trees and marshland and some things I’d like to grow just won’t in the acidic soil. I always thought a meadow of wildflowers would be the perfect look for areas of our rather unkempt property, but never got around to creating one.
When we moved here I kept developing new garden beds, mostly with what I naively thought would be permanent plantings. But even the shrubs and perennials constantly need pruning, dividing, moving, etc., as they outgrow their locations.
Gardens seem to be an ever-evolving form of art. The new growth in spring is so welcome after a dreary winter landscape, but as we plant and tend we find there is never an end to it. Gardens are never “finished”. If you love gardening, that aspect isn’t troubling; there’s always something to putter at, and that puttering can be a healthy preoccupation.
We have too much property for our dwindling energy these days, but the plants are doing well despite a bit of neglect. May was very warm, followed by a week or so of rain, and now we’re back to heat, and that combination has everything growing madly! After it was done blooming, I hacked a good two feet off the top of an unruly lilac that was overshadowing a corner of our back deck. As I said, there’s ALWAYS something to do. 🙂
June 28, 2023 at 6:17 am
I had to laugh at “naively thought” because I was the same, thinking if I did permanent plantings, as time went on, the yard would take care of itself. Even though I don’t have to replant some areas each year, there is still a lot of work. I’ve already had to move some sunlover plants because the shrubs around them grew too tall and those poor plants were in perpetual shade.
I have the opposite soil problem — the soil here is too alkaline to grow some of the plants I would like. Luckily, there are enough that don’t mind the soil.
It’s funny how even gentle souls have to be ruthless when it comes to gardening — I, too, do a lot of hacking even though I generally prefer to let things do what they want.
And yes, always something to do.
June 27, 2023 at 8:39 pm
Thank you Pat for these wonderful pictures and your writing in gardening. The flowers are beautiful. My mother was an enthusiastic gardener and my dad also took pleasure in it. There were always all kinds of seasonal flowers in our gardens. Then I moved to nyc when I was twenty. I do what I can in my small apartment and regularly buy flower for Kouro, my life mate who passed away last year.
I am lucky to live in a complex with beautiful green spaces and lots of flowers.
Hello
June 28, 2023 at 6:20 am
Green spaces are good. When I was younger, I lived in an apartment with lots of nearby parks and parkways. I never once imagined living someplace where I would have to create my own greenspace.