There are a lot of things I love to do.
Writing, reading, decorating, repurposing, crocheting, quilting, working on the dollhouse, listening to music, watching old movies.
I love my work.
Do I have to even mention that I love my husband and dogs with all my heart? Of course not. (And we’ll just make it a given that being with them is the best thing in the world.)
Having said all that, the thing that gives me the most satisfaction, the most joy is working in my garden.
I can lose all sense of time there.
I love digging in the dirt. Watching something grow – from a seed or a cutting or a baby plant – is amazing. Seeing all the effort pay off as plants leaf out and blossom and become a garden is simply glorious.
As a girl who lived in rentals most of her life – most of them apartments where there was no place for a garden – I sometimes can’t believe that these gardens here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage are mine. Mine to create and carve out and try and fail and succeed in. I still feel like a kid half the time, so how can I possibly be a homeowner who gardens?
My parents always had a vegetable garden in our back yard. There were some roses along the fence line between our property and our neighbor’s. And there were bushes in front of the house. That’s it. My mom didn’t plant flowers when I was growing up. She did later, when my parents moved to northern Michigan, but I certainly didn’t watch my parents growing and tending to a flower garden in my impressionable years.
Grandma had flowers in her yard. But they were in neat little plots here and there. Very precise and tidy. I can’t remember even caring about those flowers. They were just there. It wasn’t my thing as a kid. Or even a twenty-something.
I always had house plants, no matter where I lived. But it wasn’t until I lived in California that I was well and truly hit with the gardening bug and not until Don and I shared our little rental, a Craftsman cottage, that I started my first garden. It was right outside our back door. I spent hours there.
When we moved east and found another rental cottage, I started a garden there. It was so lovely. I even spent hours planting a ground cover at the barren base of the pine tree that stood right outside our front door. There was no outlet for a hose, so I attached one to the bathroom sink and fed it out the window, where it snaked its way on to the garden. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And now we’re here. And I think, how did I go for 30 plus years before I realized the joy of gardening? Well, the answer is that I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t living in places where I could tentatively begin to stretch my gardening muscles. I was busy going to school, acting, starting my teaching career. I lived in third and fourth floor apartments where gardening was an impossibility so I didn’t even think about it. I admired gardens but didn’t give them much notice. It wasn’t the right time.
Now it is. And I love every minute of it. I feel that, in some ways, I come alive when spring arrives. I am, just like the trees and the grass and the flowers, rejuvenated. Reborn.
Gardening is a little slice of heaven. I’m so grateful.
Happy Tuesday and Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister, Meredith. Love you.
What a wonderful post, Claudia. I do think that there are things that are Seasonal in our lives….like gardening….or quilting….or baking. Things that move forward on our “list” as our life progresses. I find that some of them fade into the background as new joys emerge to replace them.
Blessings to you today- xo Diana
I too. love working in my garden..It’s just been too darn hot and fortunately, after 10 year , I pretty much have it where I want it and it needs very little attention ..just water..We’ve had no rain for weeks..Happy 4th
I think many of us feel the same way about gardening. There’s something therapeutic about getting in the dirt, and so rewarding when we see a seed planted become a lush, green plant that produces fruit. What an amazing thing!
So pretty. Gardening is in my blood. I love it too.
: ) Kris
Lovely ode to gardening and wonderful pictures, too (especially that perfect pink rose!). I so admire your ability to blog every day and always with such insight and interesting topics!
Claudia I am just now starting to garden a little. I always had house plants but never a garden. Here at my sweet home I have a lovely deck and it’s where I plant flowers. Why now? It’s just a new ‘season’ of my life and I have the time to enjoy it. Hugs, Linda
I love it too, but can not stand it when it is 108 outside, I hate this weather.
Your love of gardening shows through with your beautiful results! Happy Bday to your sis. Ann
Fabulous post Claudia. I feel the same way- I lose track of time in the garden, I ignore any aches and pain…I don’t even mind sweating. There is just something magical about growing plants and sharing them with the other creatures on this Earth. Your garden is beautiful ♥
Such a happy heartfelt post. You have a beautiful space with your cottage and gardens.
Happy BIrthday to your sister and Happy 4th of July.
Everytime I look out at the garden my husband planted ( me being a citygirl didn’t do such a great job so he took over) It makes me feel calm and relaxed. You have a beautiful garden Claudia.
Blessings, Joanne
Nice post, Claudia. It’s true that there is a time for everything and when it’s not time, then we just do something else. Happy Birthday to Meredith. I hope she has a wonderful day.
A beautiful post—
I think I would enjoy gardening more if I didn’t have to do it in the rain!
A lovely post, Claudia!
I am certainly of the same mind as you. I fuss over my flowers and love on them as the other children I could not have. I find so much peace in digging in the earth and seeing a seed turn into a plant. My new Mini Penny hydrangea is going to bloom and the hydrangeas I layered are so big now. It gives me such joy. This unrelenting heat is worrisome but we have had two pop up storms and some rain.
Happy Birthday, Mer! I am lucky that I watched gardening from the word go. My grandmothers diligently worked in the vegetable garden, which seemed huge to me, as soon as breakfast was over. You went in for lunch. Came back out and hoed some more. Flowers were secondary. We didn’t have a car. So we lived on what the garden brought to our table. Canned for the winter months. I garden as much as I can through the year, and think about it and dream when it’s cold. WE ARE GARDENERS!
Brenda
Claudia, So glad to hear how much enjoyment and peace that you get from gardening. Gardening is my prozac. My soul craves being near the earth and being out in nature. Gardening grounds me. It’s therapeutic for me to pick weeds and deadhead all my flowers. On days when I’m not stressed I sit on my back porch and drink in all the sights and sounds. Ah, gardening is delightful! When I was much younger I had apartments and would always create a little garden on my tiny cement patio. Thanks for sharing how content you are having a garden of your very own!
I am waiting to be ready here in our home…we’ve been here for three years…and it’s looking like next year might be the year to plant our vegetable garden, so that I can get back into my canning…..and I’m sure there shall be pretty flowers like yours. Love to read about the gardening passion you have. So very sweet and inspiring. Gardening is a natural output of the human nature…..sure it makes us feel connected and centered.
Ciao Bella
Creative Carmelina
You have arrived, and your garden is so lovely.
It’s a certain type of freedom to have those plots and know that you are the director of their future.
And it’s a good feeling.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
A lovely post…as a gardener since childhood, I have to warn you about the crownvetch in picture 5. Watch it like a hawk! It wll spread everywhere and take over any plant that gets in its way including grass.
My mom and grandma always had a love of roses and had beautiful rose gardens…and they both had small veggie gardens. Now that I’ve been a homeowner for 23 years, I have pots of flowers all over, as well as a butterfly garden, herb garden, and other perennial beds and a small veggie garden. Even my husband loves to be outside and play in the dirt!
Congretulations with your sister. What a nice garden you have, beautiful flowers.
Hugs
Maria
A perfect gardening post Claudia – I feel the same way about much you share. I did grow up with a garden – guess it was a ‘Victory Garden’ in England following WW2. We HAD to grow some veggies as there was a food shortage, but I loved the flowers and shrubs my mum and I planted and nurtured over the years, and I even enjoyed working there when back visiting when she could no longer keep up with Nature’s work. The saddest thing was seeing that lovely garden concreted over by the new owners, for a parking pad, following my mum’s death when the house was sold.
As for this garden – oh my, what a mess since getting back – 106 temps. are not good for anything, but especially hydrangeas – no longer blue, just fried!!! At last some very heavy rain last evening………a Godsend for sure!
Hugs – and thanks for the nice comments on my trip pics – lots more coming!!
Mary X
Claudia, you write beautifully. There IS something about having dirt under the nails and mud on our knee caps as we while away the time in the dirt. Your garden is delightful!
xxoo
Becky