A First Try

*light blue pansies I brought in the car from Buffalo, mixed them in with lettuces, annuals, and herbs*

Gardens, like most everything, are ever evolving. Lately I’ve been feeling most at peace when my hands are on the earth.

*I planted the pot with pansies and pussy willow branches*, *when it was a girl! I stuck in pink flowering branches for their arrival home*

While in Boston MA I planted my daughter and son-in-law’s garden, it was a quick first try. We had arrived mid-April while it was still snowing, her due date was May 1^st, and I wanted her to have a small little garden to celebrate her first Mother’s Day in.

*Caroline and Peyton in the garden, always love a Breton stripe*

The blue pansies I brought with me from Buffalo, the rest of the plants I had delivered, or I bought them from a nursery in Watertown, that was my big outing for the week, and I went twice.

*the absolute before, husband hanging green mesh, blue pansies planted all in a row, I obviously dug up and replanted*

*this is late April, the space is 23 squar*e *feet*

There’s construction going on next door to them, so my husband and I hung some green netting to block the view a bit, that netting was delivered as well.

*we hung planters from the ancient laundry line*

I put in a mix of annuals, herbs, some climbing snap peas and a few perennials. It will undoubtedly need to be tended, the pansies will bolt, and the basil wasn’t looking good, all the more reason to make a return trip.

There’s a year two plan all laid out to scale on graph paper with a small sand box penciled in. Trumpet vine, hydrangea, and Hosta too. They’ve been gifted a buddleia in celebration of Peyton’s birth, that will go in this year.

*table set, before the candles are lit, simple will do*

*arugula, sage, and snap peas growing up the chain link fence*

*some lobelia in the shade and some perennial daisies*

*table covering bought for the beach in St. Tropez, every day washed Italian linen napkins*

*last evening dinner for six in the garden and I baked a cake, decorated edible pansies, from the garden, of course*

*banana cake with cream cheese frosting, I’ve left nothing to waste during pandemic/quarantine*

On our last evening we had their first garden setting dinner. It was small and intimate; we placed a borrowed card table next to their little white table and covered them both with a navy cloth they bought while in St. Tropez last year at this very same time. Our outdoor dinner marked so many things, a new baby, a new season, a first try at a new garden. All will be ever evolving, and peace will be found in that small sweet space.

Every day dress, a first try.