It could just be me but I'm so moved and inspired by the giant fleece flower's architecture. At the moment she's about 18 inches wide. Her flower stalks will eventually add another two to four feet to her diameter. She has 17 stalks this year.
When her flower stalks are fully extended and in bloom they will look like exploding baseballs made of highly luminous silk chenille sprays of light.
The volunteer foxglove is a bit smaller by comparison but not by species. This is another thriving plant - already 16-ish inches tall. She has a few main flower stalks and a few more secondary side-shoots. Beneath her copious leaves lies a red echinacea that flatly refused my rescue services. It was so nonsensical to me that I kept insisting on speaking of my intentions to separate the pair. But since we've unearthed a mind-blowing rock pairing from the middle of our field I've gained an enhanced take on the sacred nature of Things unknown to me.
we will be fine if we're left to do our work. stake generously and with a forward slant. cut away biggest leaves to use for printing in the special book. The two plant spirits seemed to be joined in a single voice. Co-creation in which my biggest part is letting it happen without imposition or interruption.
much tinier but HUGELY joy inducing - at least one of the five bronze fennels I planted last year has survived the wet bare-earthed winter.
In the field I've managed to overwinter two green fennels I grew from seed last year. But in terms of pics let's stick with this one small area:
Would love a few hours of J's muscle-time to move at least two of the three visible Stella D'oro daylilies. But I'm willing to be patient because it's officially fence-making weekend. A few hours from now I'll be as immersed in it as he's been for the past day and a half of planning and measuring and double/triple planning.
This prostrate oregano had been on my wish list for years. For the brisk competent Mistress of the House that i am not and do not aspire to become but have always loved and admired the garden spaces of such women - and them within their spaces - bustling here and there amidst the plants with a clear head and inviolate sense of competency and verve. Meanwhile ...
Grew the oregano in a tallish pot last year and presumed I was only achieving a few notches above heeling-in - for overwintering only. Then realized I could create a rocky terrain for it to grow into over the next few months. using some of the scale-proportionate rocks we pulled from the ground. Started towards the field with a wheelbarrow. J, who had just told me he was done for the day and was heading in to compose for a few hours. But then he saw me through the window of his office, got curious, and wound up tagging along. Was appreciative he was willing to heft the rocks in and out of the wheelbarrow plus push it. I took the pictures of my first rock-introduction before I had the thought of grooming the plant to look pretty.
Have got a good feeling about this and surrounding plants seem inclined to agree. There will be more rock placements.
Montana Blue Centaurea is the original medicine spirit of the Evolving Sanctuary before that's what it was. At first it was a painstaking perennial bed planted to be in bloom in every portoin of our growing season. Its evolution began with the owners between those who built the place and us left it to fend for itself for seven growing seasons. To this day I'd give a lot to have a look at the original plans - plus just a few pictures of how it looked when it was loved and doted-over.
In flower essence realms Blue Centaurea offers long range clarity of vision. Over time I've found this can mean any number of things depending on the person's specific healing/illumination needs. I intend to re-seed this space with replacement crowns as and when.
And crowning just a few steps away - but in the presence of a whole other vibe and eco-system - the snowball viburnum beside the frog pond has begun to leaf-out. I'll do some pruning before the weekend's over. IF there's time. Better do it in the next few hours - along with a few other pruning tasks. J's currently picking up an augur he's rented for the weekend - plus the additional (wooden) posts he'll need to make the fence. By this evening or tomorrow morning he'll need me on deck to hold the fence in place as need be. Am a little nervous about it. There's nowhere to lay the fence flat on the ground to the west. Any available choice risks considerable damage to the recovery work I've been doing in the transplant garden.
yesterday afternoon he staked out the positions of both metal and wooden posts. we are both a little overwhelmed by what we've set in motion with this endeavor. the sheer physical size of the space - made all the more tangible by the nuts and bolts dimension of what's entailed in getting this new thing properly enclosed.
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on a whole other page of mandatory gardening to-do actions I need to start putting some of the basement seedlings into transplant pots. A few of the second-hand six packs I needed to use right at the last moment have split their seams. Need to protect the exposed roots n-o-w. Am not overwhelmed simply because all of This keeps me from focusing too much or too deeply on all of That. that which IS just like the individual pockets of beauty and sanity we're all doing our best to maintain.
never understood people who dealt with anxiety and the unknown by staying busy busy busy. have always felt they were primarily afraid to sit alone in their own mind EVER and perhaps that's true. but it wouldn't necessary mean their soul and spirit lacked depth or an ingrained ability to persevere on terms as real and valid as my own. far from it, is what I'm learning first hand.
it's a good thing to realize.
have YOU realized anything that shifts you frame and widens it a bit?