Dreaming

I've been dreaming about my dad a lot lately. I'm always surprised when something I think that I have dealt with keeps popping up like a whack-a-mole game. Do you ever really deal with the death of a parent?

This time I think I know why. I'm forming a plan for the backyard, it involves garden planning. I keep hearing dad's voice in my head discussing plants with my mom. I know he wanted clematis and columbines. He always liked bachelor buttons. He planted snapdragons for me, because I loved playing with their little flower mouths. We had a huge strawberry patch in the middle of the garden.

I loved walking behind Dad as he tilled the garden. I always tried to step into his foot tracks in the dirt, never quite managing to do it with my shorter legs. Guess I'm still trying to do that now.

Last summer I faced the same issue with trying to figure out what to do with our backyard. I started small. I found a local nursery and bought four or five single plants, based solely on if I liked them, no plan to speak of. Ok fine I bought a few to plant in teacups but that was not really planning more of a random idea. I bought some containers a few weeks later and some Snapdragons and Marigolds. And some dianthus because that was the first flower I could hear Dad and Mom discussing in my head. I remember thinking what an odd sensation it was to be remembering decades old conversations.

Again I had no real plan other than I wanted them to surround the back patio. So that's what I did I plopped them in the ground or container and wished them well. It was interesting to watch them develop. The marigolds didn't get planted that first day and dried out. One of the six showed stunted growth from the trauma but they really did fine. My snapdragons made me smile each day I saw them. I made sure to test a few dragon mouths, you know just in case. 

 

I now know that I want to put this lovely lemon thyme in around the porch. Lovely green and it grew so well, hey it is still green and growing in January. I think it is supposed to be a bug repeller which is a big plus for me. I'll have to check on that. Also who doesn't want more thyme in the garden. 

(See it is even good for bad puns.)

Burt is campaigning for his own grass allotment. He solemnly swears that he will keep it trimmed back. Now there is a plant that I thought was dead, so I plopped it in the ground, gave it some water and wished it well. Sure enough the green shoots popped back up and Burt found he likes to garden too. 

I'm fighting off the tendency to add too much, too soon. I'm thinking of a couple of raised beds of veggies and adding a few more flowers. I'd dearly love to finally have a clematis for Dad. I'm looking into lavender too. I've always admired CrazySheepLady's lavender garden, although I don't know how much of an effort I want to make. Again if I start small with a plant or two...

An acer, Japanese Maple, is one thing I said I would have if I ever moved to Oregon. Have you seen those things? They are beautiful! And Bamboo is on my mind too, how can I grow it without having it takeover and without it costing me oodles of cash. Ferns, we have a nice shady corner that I bet would grow ferns.

But mostly right now I'm thinking about what veggies to plant. As a farmer's daughter, I really should be growing things to eat. And we all know Hubby will eat any and all tomatoes that I can grow. I'm going to try my hand at lettuce too. I think I read somewhere that they are companion plants. I should plant some peas and Swiss chard too.

Oh and an herb garden, and a tea garden, I know they sell camomile plants here...  The garden I'm growing in my mind is huge and wonderful. If I can manage to get one percent of it planted in real life I'll be doing all right.

Now if I can manage to not put my name on every seed catalog list. I remember how Dad would pour over those when we lived on the farm. Surely a catalog or two won't fill the mailbox too full or be too tempting for me...