Failure Leads to New Things

My back yard is so lush I feel like we live in Eden. After a dry summer, we've now had rain. The deck plants are voluminous. My scraggly little geranium, which is years old (it winters inside) is huge, and dripping with bright pink blooms. The three ferns are massive green mounds that show new shoots almost daily. The arboricola is nearly doubled in size. I could go on, and that's just the deck!

I might have to trim back some large branches on trees overhanging too close to the deck, or else we'll never get out the back door again. It's less sunny there now, but how nice that is on hot summer days.

A walk through the yard reveals hundreds of dead branches, blown down in storms. "Self-pruning trees." Love it! Unfortunately, some ground covers have not fared well, since the previous winter storms left packed snow and ice that destroyed most of them. And yes, I'm only now getting to the clean up. Oh well, I'll plant again. Still, a few peep up and might survive.

I thought of Dad yesterday, and how he "made" me work in his garden. Thank God for that! I learned. What I've grown in my life is a pittance of what he probably did in one year as a nurseryman and landscaper. Of course, he had that rich dark brown Ohio soil, and I have... red clay nicely mixed with sand. (Don't clay and sand make concrete?)

Some days I'll get my big ol' shovel, pick a spot, set the blade in the ground, and jump on it with all my might to sink it deep into the earth. It goes in about 1/2" and I fall on the ground. Of course, the roots from a zillion trees nearby don't help. Either I'm a fairy, or this soil is not happy to give in to me. I do it every year, always hoping to do better.

Last year's veggie garden (full of garden center bagged soil and my mulched dead leaves) gave us tons of cherry and heirloom tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, cucumbers and more. It's in my only sunny spot: 4' x 8'. This year's total take has been 3 tomatoes (not plants, just 3 tomatoes!) and one tiny 'lope. Seriously. Other than a heat wave, me lying in bed on drugs half the time, and who knows what else...oh wait, that's enough to cause failure.

So this year I'm doing my first ever fall garden. Already researched what to plant, have a call in to the garden center - I'm ready to go. Carrots, onions, cabbage, cauliflowers and more - here I come!