Blast from the Past

I thought I would share a WAY before picture that I lifted from the www.wemoonspirit.com website archives, so that we could see just how FAR we've come:



Wow! Right?

This weekend's arts and crafts fair was a hit -- the weather held up for us and the garden shone its beautiful best. And we *may* have tantalized a few prospective gardeners to come for our Saturday womanifestation parties!

So I need to share something wonderful. It's the Tallahassee Garden Club's monthly plant exchange, and you can read all about how wonderful it is in Kitty Kerner's article in the October, 2004, Tortoise. (Find it at www.tallyimc.org.)
I walked away from the plant exchange with two beautiful coral sages, a butterfly bush, a big pineapple sage, a few swamp sunflowers, two kumquat trees, several types of lilies and irises, and a tiny kanachoe. I found places for the little darlings in the garden because they were none too happy to have been out of the ground for several hours. Their homes are not permanent, mind you; there is still much planning to be done with regards to the layout and design of the beds. But they at least have somewhere to sleep this winter.

And when I was interring them, I found another of those pretty pinkish snakes, tiny as a worm, just beneath the mulch cover. A google search suggested that this little friend may indeed be a "Worm Snake," but the pictures weren't an exact match so I'm still not sure.

Ready for Arts and Crafters

We've been working overtime to ready the garden for visitors this weekend, and the effort has truly paid off. We have beds outlined in bottles, mushroom compost and mulch covering layers of loose soil, paths marked by thick layers of rust-colored pine straw, and borders of fragrant garlic chives, society garlic, and hearty lariope. Which raises the question: What next? After the arts and crafts festival, when the garden is again quiet, what will we be waiting for?

What about a class on growing your own medicinal herbs taking root in the bed the follows the bottle wall? Or one on companion planting filling in the crescent moon? Or what about a trial butterfly bed along the main path, practice for the next garden that will go on the north side of the property? Might the mosaic class venture into stepping stones, and will some of those stones adorn our humble footpaths? Is there a handbuiling or found-object sculpture class in the future? What better gallery than the garden to showcase such art. Does anyone know how to do topiary? Espaliers?

We'll keep the ideas stewing this winter, and won't be discouraged when things cool off and slow down. We are like Echinacea seeds: sometimes we need a hard freeze to make us remember to wake up and share our splendor with the world when the time is right.

Gardeners in Spirit

We're getting a touch lonely here in our virtual garden ... Do you have suggestions or questions? Want to make a comment or respond to something you read in a post? Care to share your favorite gardening links or tips? We'd love to hear from the readers of this blog! Simply click on "comments" at the bottom of the post and start writing.

The Saturday of Getting Much Done

Saturday was bright, and crisp as an apple. Probably in the sixties when we arrived, warmed up to maybe low seventies by the time we wandered away at 2 or so. It seemed every time you turned around, something was finished up and something else was in the middle of getting done. We had more pairs of hands than gloves and tools, and what a difference it made.

Our work from weeks ago paid off in spades. The soil was so loose and loamy (having already been turned and mixed with compost) that to define the beds with bottles, all we had to do was pick a place and push down. The beds look like they are surrounded by jewels -- emeralds, peridots, clear crystal, garnet, onyx, amber, and citron -- hopefully defining the beds and plants as precious and not to be tread upon!

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea:

Picture Post

Looking east across the main path and garden bed:



From the southwest corner of the garden, over the bottle wall:
(You can really see the outline of the beds in this one -- compare it to the preliminary sketch below!)



The garden entrance from the main path, with stepping stone and hose guide:



We have sprouts. We have a nip in the air and moisture on the way. We have a third quarter moon for this weekend -- good time for weeding and cultivating. We have innovation, creativity, hard work, and beautiful energy.Things are good in the garden of WeMoonSpirit.

(Thanks to Paty, whose lovely images let us "visit" the garden any time we like :)! )