Garden Sharing

Suplus boxwood

The excitement of a fresh plot of garden space or an entire yard for that matter makes it irresistible to receiving new plantings. My theory of gardening is "no dirt showing" and to that end I built my gardens from the ground up with offerings from my mother-in-law's garden, friends' yards and plant sales. Through the years, the yard's bareness began to fill in until it hit the jungle phase. That was when the plants and trees were competing for space and not thriving at their optimum.

A young friend with a new yard to fill asked for some starts and I gave her free rein to dig through the yard. She filled a pickup bed with samples from many of the plants. When she left, the garden seemed barely touched and as spring came the plants seemed to thrive once again, making up for their lost pieces with renewed strength!

Preparing to dig

A period of several years of inattention gave the garden an unbridled opportunity to overpower this gardener and become an uncivilized mass of overgrown plants, mossy bricks, Johnson grass and unpruned trees. The balance of control versus nature tipped to a riotous mass of greenery that one person could only struggle with to keep from totally returning to nature. A merciful and talented gardening friend spent two entire days hacking, digging, pruning back the jungle as well as pulling out a fair share of plants for her garden and subsequently returned my yard to me in a manageable state.

When some fallen trees opened up the yard to more sun, I decided to share once again so that I could reclaim a kitchen garden space. A call went out to anyone wanting free boxwood and other plant starts. One friend came to claim a few shrubs and the digging kept the wheelbarrow filled with other garden delights: Siberian iris, Japanese anemone, hostas to name a few.

Another friend plans to come and dig more boxwood and then case the garden for other useable starts for her new yard.  As I gaze about my own yard my eyes catch reminders of friends and fellow gardeners via the plants they have shared with me over the years. Thanks Vicki for the variegated hydrangea, mom for the hostas, my mother for the roses and calla lilies, grandmother for the Cecil Brunner climbing rose via my uncle, Mike and Holly for the dahlias, Tammy for the yellow loosestrife that crept under the fence, to mention a few.  Private plant sales, end-of-season grocery store sales, nursery close-outs, the local community college horticulture sales and the occasional splurge for a coveted hardy geranium or peony. So many wonderful memories!

Room for vegies now!

 When you have plenty, think of others who are just starting or starting over and share the bounty with them. It can only serve to stimulate your own garden to spread in healthy growth, making endless ways to continue the gardener's practice of sharing the wealth! Contact me for starts. I have a jungle waiting to sprout!

Come fill  your trunk from my garden