How does my garden grow?

I honestly have no idea

Good morning friend!

My neighbourhood is abloom with lilacs right now, many of which are at the waning stage. It reminded me that I hadn't stepped foot in my backyard since we returned from Japan to take in the gorgeous scent of our own lilac bushes.

Off I went, skipping to the backyard lugging the garbage and recycling to the back lane, pausing to examine my lilacs. I trimmed back the bushes last fall in an attempt to keep them tame. I was also hoping that doing so would yield me more blooms this summer.

But my lilacs are in the early stages of blooming, and I don't understand why. Do lilacs bloom at different times, I wondered. I don’t know and I don’t care enough about gardening to find out.

You see, while my friends plan and prep and play in their gardens, I do none of that. Yet my garden grows, abundantly. I throw something in the ground and it thrives. We had a hydrangea bush in our front garden and everyone told me how hard it was to manage those in Zone 4. I had no idea what that meant and didn’t ask for clarification. It didn’t matter though; my neglect gave me white flower balls the size of mini watermelons. We lost that plant in a June snowstorm, so I planted roses instead.

“Those will need a great deal of care,” one of my gardening friends warned me.

I let the plant be and had lovely roses that summer. I never deadheaded it and in the early spring the following year, I snipped off the stalks and stems that looked like they might be dead. When summer rolled around, the bush was not fussed at all by my lack of knowledge or expertise.

I had to add a trellis because the stalks grew so long so fast.

I wanted more flowers, so I planted something else I found at a nursery that promised yellow flowers. The aphids (or something) made it a core part of their all-you-can-eat leafy buffet. And still, the flowers emerged.

Despite being a popular snack, the flowers bloomed. Anyone know what they re?

In front of our house, we planted a couple of trees, an Arctic Fire, and some other green miscellany (told you I was clueless about gardens). The plan was to maybe plant some annual or perennial flowers at some point. After the first year, we did that, but the flowers were choked out by the other things we planted. Last in, first out, I guess.

The growth is insane this year, there isn't room for a single pansy. At least I have white flowers from one of these plants? Bushes? Don't know, won't know.

But back to the lilacs. They are not yet in full bloom, and they seem to be struggling. I threw some water at them, so maybe they’ll be looking a bit healthier when I get back from camping. Even with the tiny flowers coming up, I can still smell them. I dropped the trash in the bins, then stood in between the two giant bushes. I closed my eyes, inhaled, and silently asked the flowers to keep doing the good work. That’s as far as I’ll take my gardening efforts.

My two lilac bushes keep on keepin on.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the ash tree that randomly sprouted in our back yard. My husband has been staking it for the last couple of years and we are on our way to a full, and free, tree.

Our free tree is now about 8 feet tall. I have to trim the branches at the bottom, don’t I. Who knows. It will grow into a giant no matter what I do.

Anything I touch, thrives. I’m not bragging, but I was gifted a poinsettia that kept blooming for four months after Christmas. And then it sprouted a new leaf.

New leaf, who dis?

I don’t know how my garden grows. All I know is that it does. It’s a blessing, really, because I’d rather be writing or reading than gardening.

xo Dana

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What I’m reading

I was about 25 pages into my latest read when I flipped to the back flap to find out About the Author. It was the premise that drew me in: a failed author wants to ask her husband of 19 years for a divorce and she wants to do it on date night but instead they find themselves in the middle of a crime in progress. It was the writing that kept me reading and when I flipped to the back, I laughed to discover I had already read two of Colleen Oakley's novels and loved them: The Invisible Husband of Frick Island and The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise. I started Jane and Dan at the End of the World on Friday night and woke up Saturday eager to get back to reading. That is always a good sign.