Garden Madness
Before my mom was a Pre-K teacher, she was a landscaper. Which meant that I spent a lot of my early childhood being carted around to businesses and private houses, finding ways to entertain myself while my mom worked. So there was a lot of reading, lots of pretend play, and even some practice for being a writer, which I talk about here. I don't ever recall being that interested in her actual gardening, but as I've become an adult I've realized that I seemed to have picked up a love of gardens anyway. (This is probably aided by the fact that my mom's personal garden has always been quite lovely and I spent massive amounts of time reading in it when I lived at home, and the fact that most castles and manor houses have wondrous gardens, and I wish, rather desperately, that I could live in one.)
In any case, though I'm not nearly so green-thumbed as my mom, I've kept my garden since I bought my own house about eight years ago. I've spent the last few weeks cleaning it up from the winter and getting all my new plants in, and I think it looks pretty good for early in the spring (though my garden doesn't reach its peak until summer, because many of my plants are of the native, drought-resistance variety, which in essence means that they want to be beaten with the blazing heat of an Oklahoma summer before they'll get going). So I thought I'd share some pics.
This is Clyde II. (Clyde, First of His Name, is smaller and lives in the house because he's a little more battered than Clyde II and too fragile to go outdoors.) Clyde II Is a llama, NOT, as some people claim, a goat. (And no, I don't care that he has horns and may have started life as a goat. He's a llama now.) Bonus points for anyone who knows why he's named Clyde II. (Hint: it's related to a short story that appeared in Realms of Fantasy.)
A bigger shot of Clyde II so that you can see the huge plant that's attacking him. I love this plant because it is so weird looking, though I'm having trouble remembering what it is (I planted it several years ago).
Close shot of the Plant Who Shall Not Be Named. Love the little fairy-cup leaves.
And one more just for fun.
The Yarrow That Will Take Over the World. This is only 1/3 to 1/2 of the whole plant. Also, this is Matt's favorite plant, because he says it reminds him of the platforms in a Mario game. Yes, I'm married to a geek.
Zinnias make me happy, even when they're still small. I also have yellow and orange flowers, and they're awesome in the heat of summer.
This strawflower is new this year. I can't get over how plasticy the leaves feel--it's like they're not even real.
I planted these Crazy Daises last year, but didn't get to enjoy them because I was in Ireland when they bloomed. Very glad to be here to see them this year, because they make me smile whenever I go past them.
If one daisy is crazy, what's a whole bush of them?
Matt might like the yellow yarrow best, but I really like my paprika yarrow. What's funny about this picture is that I didn't realize a ladybug had photobombed me until I was resizing this for the post. You can see it on the right edge of the plant.
These cosmos are new this year. I love their darker pink centers. I also have dark purple ones and you can see some of the white and purple ones in Clyde II.
These always look like they should start singing to me, like the flowers in Alice in Wonderland. Their mouths are already open, after all.
So, there's a peek at what I've been busy with for the last few weekends. I'll do another post later this summer when the coneflowers, Mexican hat plant, Mexican butterfly weed, and the butterfly bush get going.