The Sodden Garden

I await the opportunity to 'feed' our garden pots, which is to say the flowers and plants growing in them. Using a water-soluble fertilizer, the opportunity to do so continues to elude, because the soil is simply too sodden to accept any more, with or without fertilizer. So the process will have to wait until such time as we have had more than one isolated day without rain events. Trusting this will not be a vain hope. Since this evening, after an entire day without rain, we're anticipating thunderstorms again.

As a result of all that rain, of course, we haven't had to water the gardens or the garden pots at all. They're already close to drowning as it is, all the foliage and the flowers looking not quite bedraggled, but needful of sun. Even one day without rain seems to make a difference. Colours are brighter, the flowers look cheekier, more substantial, more prepared to advance themselves, and make the pots fuller than they are at present, with their presence.

It's pleasant to be getting a bit of a reprieve from constant rain, pop-up showers and thunderstorms. We're also appreciative of the shelter we now have on our deck in the form of the gazebo enabling us to continue sitting out on the glider, enjoying leisure hours, reading the newspapers, our little dogs companionably beside us. Shelter from the searing sun, when it's shining, and shelter from light rain events, which don't impinge on our comfort, thanks to the water-proof awning.

Beesbalm and roses, along with Asiatic lilies, are decorating the backyard, and clematis vines, and plantain lilies sending up their long tall floral shoots. While I work in the garden, or relax on the deck, my husband is busy, despite the heat of the day, working to prepare the back corner of the backyard to receive the new garden shed he intends to erect there. Meanwhile, the work of moving plants, and even one of the composters, of flattening the soil, and covering it with stonedust and tamping it into place, then laying down concrete pavers is underway, exhaustingly.

We find our cool oasis in our gardens, front and back. The texture, fragrance, and delicate colouration of the flowers, in particular the begonias in the garden pots are wonderful to behold. Pleasing our aesthetic beyond compare. It seems, year after year, that each garden we create surpasses that of the year before. Taking photographs of the gardens as they emerge in the spring, then mature throughout the growing period helps to remind us. But it never seems the same year after year, there is always the thrill of different elements in the growth patterns and resulting overall landscape.

Our eyes are greedy, feasting on the beauty of the gardens, nature's bounty of wonderful shapes, sizes, textures and colours.