GET GROWING!

GARDEN NOTES FROM MY FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS

 By LADYBUG

Garden notes come in all forms and shapes. There are those we make in garden journals – whether fancy ones with thick hand-crafted paper or a child’s simple notebook.

There are notes we make on calendars to remind ourselves to fertilize or prune or dig up a plant for a friend. Notes we exchange with our gardening buddies on the shape of things in our yards each season.

And then there are the notes left on the porch by neighbours.

But let me backtrack a little here.

The grass on the strip by the walkway used to be a disaster. Patchy, under the maples that grew there, it was a haven for weeds. I’d spend hours weeding, be pleased with my efforts, but within a few days it would look like the most neglected space you could imagine.

Having tried for a couple of years to keep the weeds under control, I decided to replace it with ground-cover – give the weeds something to battle, for a change!

I planted tufts of lamium, sweet woodruff and lily-of-the-valley, interspersed with clumps of lungwort. Windflowers and perennial geraniums filled in the gaps.

It took a while for my patchwork quilt to fill out and fill the space and until then the weeding and cleaning had to continue, prompting rumbles of revolt within the family.

“Mom, you’ve booby-trapped the walkway!” grumbled my son, while attempting to cut the grass around this work-of-garden-art in progress.

But eventually the plants did mesh together and in spring and early summer, the windflowers dance in the wind. I deadhead diligently and am rewarded with a continued bloom period.

The geraniums and lamium etc., soon follow, but truth be told, the windflowers are the stars of the show.

Neighbours walking by always stop to admire them. Some ask what they are called, if they are perennials, and we enjoy a pleasant chat about our garden favourites. With the windflowers being prolific self-seeders, I always have seedlings to share.

A couple walking by introduced themselves to me one morning and said they loved the dainty blooms. They’d moved into a home with a yard that was bereft of any plants, they said.

As I am always looking for homes for plants I dig up and divide, it was a happy match.

Any containers they spotted in front of the garage were theirs to take, I said. They continued on their way and after I was done with my garden chores for the day, I dug up some windflowers to start with and left them in the designated spot.

That evening, I came out to find a sweet little note on the porch, thanking me for the plants.

The next morning they walked by again and said they had planted the flowers in seven different spots and with the rain we’d had, the plants had settled in happily.

Another lady out for her morning jog wishes me a cheery good morning as she runs past. When the windflowers first bloomed, she stopped short and asked, “What are these plants? I must have some!”

So some were dug up for her, too, and left in that same spot neighbours know to look for plants in. That evening, the container was gone, but I had a sudden doubt. What if another neighbour took them and this lady was too polite to remind me of my promise to give her some?

That doubt was soon laid to rest when she stopped by the next morning. “Thank you so much for the flowers!” she exclaimed. “I told my husband, we have to go by your house to pick them up before somebody else gets them!”

And then she added something that had me laugh out loud.

“If I hadn’t seen those containers, honestly, I was going to steal some!”

I was reminded of a long-ago conversation with my parents’ dear friends Nandita and Dr DP Sengupta, or kakima and kaku as I call them.

He was taking me on a round of his garden and showed me my first brahmakamal. I was smitten.

“May I please beg, borrow or steal a piece?” I asked, absolutely certain I was going home with a plant.

Kaku, who has spent many years in England and speaks with a very British accent, said, “You don’t have to beg, borrow or steal, sweetheart, I’d love to give you some!”

And kakima got up with a smile to procure the coveted plant for me.

Now the purple clustered bellflower (another prolific spreader that always elicits requests for seedlings) is getting ready to do its thing and I am getting the spade out to dig up seedlings for neighbours.

No one has to beg, borrow or steal, gardeners are delighted to share!