Sunday Afternoon in the Garden

I have just finished foraging in the local landfill. I was able to find a healthy vintage hollyhock. It's roots eager and sprawling. Yellow flowers crowning the four foot plant. It sat forgotten with deep roots among the collected yard waste. I can't but help wonder who it used to belong to? I would like to think it would make them smile knowing it has found a new home among our hosta and zinnia. A showcase center piece positioned along the new stone walkway my wife put down by hand this spring. Bees already sipping nectar from its bonnet flowers.

I was also able to harvest four poppy plants as well. I have to admit that I am not 100% sure as to their variety. I believe they may be Icelandic Poppy at my wife's suggestion but I am willing to admit I may be wrong in such an early verdict. The plants caught my eye while I was walking my dogs one afternoon. Their brilliant pink blooms among a sea of green and yellow. There they were waiting from a garden long forgotten.

There was also a pink morning glory willing to lift its roots and come home with me. It will make a nice addition to my wife's front flower bed.

Now I relax on the front porch. Birds sing from the forest. Too many calls to name. Some elegant, some incessant chattering and some melancholy and lazy. Just like people I know.

My son works on his mothers flower patch and fills in the holes in the driveway with the extra soil and rocks. My oldest daughter plays in her fairy garden. A cool breeze runs its fingertips over me on this July afternoon. A little chipmunk thinks he is clever sunbathing among the yarrow near my feet.

Since I have begun to garden in earnest I cannot remember such a cool July. The temperatures for the most part have been in the low to high 70's, occasionally touching off in the low 80's. Hardly average for this time of year.

It has been cloudy and rainy more often than not. To the extent that I have been able to put my trust in Mother Nature to water my crops the majority of this fine summer.

I know that fall is pleasantly waiting to make her appearance in a pageantry of gold, yellow and autumn red but I am trying to relish the moment at hand. I suppose that in itself is a larger lesson in life. Bugs hiss, snap and yodel from the tall grass. A single honey bee wrestles against the porch screen, late for eternal work in the flower bed.

Life is good. Today it is slow and peaceful with a little sweat on the brow in an effort to keep me honest. A fine way to spend ones Sunday.    

Tobias Whitaker blogs for Mother Earth News and Grit Magazine. Click on the Mother Earth News logo at the bottom of the page for all of his post. You can also find him on Facebook at Seed To Harvest: Bossy Hen Homestead  https://www.facebook.com/seedtoharvestbossyhenhomestead/ which is a central location for his homesteading blogs and his homeschooling blog, A Mile In Her Shoes: Tales Of A Stay-At Home Dad found here https://amileinhershoestalesofastayathomedad.wordpress.com/