Thoughts on gardening...

(The photos don't correspond with the thoughts....work with me, okay?)

I wonder if the ants hear the explosion of bean seedlings pushing through the soil?

Because that's how it happens...one morning, nothing; 15 minutes later, a bean plant. 

Surely that resounds in the minute world of insects...

The roses Grandma gave me smell sweeter than any other.

I've sampled dozens and still, the yellow ones are the most glorious...how dear is that?

Thistles are wicked plants from hell, 

but when my daughter named our latest bum calf "Thistle-bum", they all of a sudden took on some redeeming characteristics....like "tough despite hardships" and "bright frazzled-y blossoms".

For some reason, weeding with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee is MUCH less painful than weeding without.  And weeding without a beverage is really not all that painful, anyway...it's more contemplative than anything. 

One should always over-plant...because the mortality rate on tomatoes and petunias is really awfully high until June 15th.  (Also, the local greenhouse starts cutting prices around June 1st and who in the world can pass up $.75 tomatoes?!) 

The more one adores a plant or flower, the greater likelihood of a dog flopping down on it or the hail pounding it into the dirt.  Nothing decimates marigolds, but the ONE contraband pinched specimen of Akebia quinata that you surreptitiously snuck from the French botanical gardens of Vancouver Public Lands will be flattened just as soon as it's rooted and planted, despite the heavy guarding of woven wire and cactus placed around it. I promise, it will.

There's no such thing as too many zinnias. 

There IS such a thing as too many zucchini plants

Greenhouse Amnesia is a malady that many experience, but few admit to.  

When gardeners go to a greenhouse, they forget many things.

1. The number of pots they actually have to fill.

2. The zone they really garden in.

3. The money they budgeted for the shopping trip.

4.  The time it's going to take in August to maintain all these purchases/plantings, when it's 103 degrees at 10 a.m. and they are buried in zucchini.

How does your garden grow?