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transplanting

“Oh What a Beautiful Morning…..

by Lorraine on February 19, 2012

Oh what a beautiful day…..I’ve got a beautiful feeeeellllinnnng! Everything’s going my wayyyy”….Okay, so I guess who ever is reading this, knows this is my attempt at singing the song from the musical comedy, “Oklahoma”.

And what does it have to do with native plants, gardening, habitat creation and other aspects of life?   At least my life?   Probably nothing other than it is a beautiful morning and as morning gives away to the afternoon, there are implied promises that the day will continue to be inspiring.

It doesn’t take much for me to be happy and I just completed spreading out four bags of mulch which gives my garden a neater look, especially since this year I won’t have the usual display of wildflowers.

And that is because it hasn’t’ rained enough to encourage the seeds to sprout but there will be plenty of California poppies putting on their best colors as they daintily slip off their slender, green overcoats.   And they never disappoint and can be counted on to show up and show off..

I am so far behind on writing regularly here and I do want to share some of the notes that I took while attending a class at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants…a few months ago conducted by Barbara Eisenstein on the exciting topic of irrigation.

Then there are those times that when I just simply fail when I try to do something such as digging up, dividing and transplanting some of the Douglas Iris’.   Most of them died but failures are to be expected in life and it’s best that we take them with a smile and learn something from them.

Although the ones that I gave to my daughter-in-law are apparently doing just fine.   Or at least that is what she’s telling me.   Maybe she doesn’t want me to know  she killed them, too.

I guess the song from” Oklahoma” is saying that no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, no matter how scared or hopeless you may feel, the sun is always raising somewhere and that includes your heart.

Figueroa Mt.'s Poppies/Santa Barbara County

It’s a beautiful day….

 

 

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A Love Affair Comes to an End

by Lorraine on September 12, 2010

It occurred to me that having a garden (and that’s any kind of garden), is a bit like being in a love affair as it unfolds and embraces you in a relationship that you have no idea where is going to go or if it will end or continue blissfully into the infinite future!

I don’t think that when a person decides to start a garden, that they are thinking of the consequences of that decision and what will be expected of them from their plants.  They have to be looked after, maybe babied and sometimes need a little more attention that you thought you would have to give when you started your project.

My garden is 100% native plants and when I started it almost three years ago, I didn’t know too much about  native plants and  I relied on books and some advice as to what my plant selection could be.   I poured through the books, loved many plants that I saw and envisioned them in my garden.

However, you have to be realistic, not all of them are appropriate for your space and falling in love with some of them can be a bad decision.   Then you are forced to recognize that the relationship just isn’t working anymore and you’re loath to do anything about it , because you still “care”.

After much consideration, hand-wringing and how I can best initiate the breakup without too much pain, I’ve decided to remove the Canyon Prince Rye Grasses.   I still love them… a lot but you know?

It’s just not working for me anymore and it’s time to move on to the next chapter in my relationship with my garden.   I severely cut two of them back today….and yes.   And in about two months, the rest of them will get cut to the ground, too.

And then I will attempt to transplant them to my backyard but I’m not holding my breath on this.   They will probably be so shocked by the breakup, that they may die of broken hearts.

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