It's a Beautiful Day

I spent the morning at the NW Flower and Garden Show with my sister-in-law. The most fun thing was seeing my dearest friend, Lorene, who owns Fremont Gardens, one of the best nurseries in Seattle. After I bought a mess of seeds at her charming little booth and caught up on life, we did the next most fun thing, which is looking at the display gardens. I am not and never will be a gardener on that scale but I love seeing what really talented people do with the common elements of stone, dirt and plants. This year's theme was "outdoor rooms" and I got 3 pages of noteworthy ideas.

It's always the little details that get me. A wine press as a water feature. Thick bamboo poles cut in varying heights, planted with moss at the top and used to give the hint of a fence. A kind of Japanese maple that has beautiful red bark and would look so fabulous in a winter garden whose defining color is brown. You gotta think outside the box every once in a while and an event like this points the way.

Not that I'll likely employ many of the ideas I got. I always run out of money, will or frankly, interest before I get too far. Last year I treated my garden like Brad treated Jen. But this year I'll do better. I'll acknowledge the existence of my garden. I'll weed. I'll actually water what I plant. That would be a good start.

The other day I started a new blog, just for writing about my garden. The years when I'm really into it I think about my garden a lot. But I figure you won't be all that interested in every little garden related musing so I started the other blog as a kind of electronic garden journal. It won't take up any space on my shelves and I won't end up leaving it out in the rain.

It is freaking gorgeous outside today. I am starting to think that changing into mud clothes and doing some weeding might be very enjoyable.