Do you remember when you were a kid, and your Aunt and Uncle would come to visit? They would get out of the car, walk up to you and remark"my how you have grown!" Any smart remark would get you in trouble, so you just squirmed as they twisted your ear in relative joy. Staring at the ground hoping this would all be over soon. Well when I got back, and finally had a chance to check out my garden, that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw it. Oh my, how you have grown!
Dark brown buds when I left, are now brilliant green leaves. Tiny fronds are wide spaced feathery ferns. The little purple violas have multiplied into masses of faces smothering the soil. My parrotia tree has leaves! And they are growing day by day. The ginkgo is expanding, green tufts shooting out from previously bare branches. Hosta's are bursting, they are spearing upwards. Unfurling into variegated fans of green, yellow, and white.
There are some sad brown pots of cold soil, the Japanese Anemone looks like it never survived, and the grasses all have gone to a better garden in the sky. Even though they were supposed to be hardy to zone 3. And two of the beautiful clematis have nothing but fragile brown sticks to show me now. But the golden hops is growing, happy lime green leaves are climbing the russet brick wall. The hydrangeas look like most of them have leaves, and the lily is definitely flourishing. So you win some, and you lose some. While this has been a heartbreaking winter, with a huge percentage of loss, some plants just seem to survive anything.
As I look at my garden, and I reflect that although I have lost some, the remaining plants are doing their best to fill the gaps. Friday's Muddy Booter post will probably return next week, or…maybe the week after that. Things are crazy busy around here, between work, and the garden.