march 14th, boulder, colorado
March 14, 2009
one man's weed
"look mommy k!" my daughter sofia said to me yesterday, with great excitement, as we walked around the block on a beautiful near spring day in boulder. "the very first dandelion of the season!"
March 2, 2009
my first ruby giant crocus bloomed today. at least 100 more will follow. it was a warm march 2nd today in boulder. this will be their second spring in my little rock garden. bulbs are the coolest thing. i just can't get over how they sit in the garden all year long and then suddenly break ground and pop up in such tremendous beauty. and then they just fade away, as if they had never happened.
February 28, 2009
February 20, 2009
February 19, 2009
my purple aubrieta
this one branch of my purple rock cress aubrieta has been blooming all winter long, steadily, since late fall. a persistent sprig of blooms kept on blooming, day after day, weathering snow after snow. now i am waiting to see my purple aubrieta experience its first spring in my garden. it survived this spot at the top of my rock garden when nothing else seemed to, not even turkish veronica. how did this plant keep blooming through a colorado winter? through november, december, january, and february? it was as if it was frozen in time, in a literal sense, reappearing in steady and singular purple through each new round of melting snow. i took this picture today in the boulder foothills, on February 19th, 2009. i planted two of these plants to begin with last fall, in keeping with my philosophy that no plant should have to grow up without a sibling. but its sister didn't survive an unseasonal fall heat wave, and now i am left with only this one. but since they say that rock cress aubrieta will reseed after flowering, even to the point of taking over, i am thinking that the spirit of the sister will live on. given its already proven persistence, my purple aubrieta will no doubt make itself known when spring arrives. i have seen different shades of rock cress spilling over slopes in scores of colorado foothill gardens, and it is beautiful.
February 18, 2009
sweet dijt
they say that the reddish purple miniature iris j.s. dijt is one of the last of the miniature iris to bloom. but this little j.s. dijt, which came to my garden after being mistakenly tossed into a 50-strong mail-order bag of its much truer and bluer cousins, comes up faithfully each year at the same time as my iris reticulata pixies and crocus snow bunting, which are both said to be early bloomers. tell me, are there any other heroic stories of loner garden bulbs who reject their genetic shackles and instead bloom with their friends? this picture was taken today in the boulder foothills, february 18th, 2009.
spring is bubbling
i have been reflecting on last year's garden while i wait in anticipation of this year's garden. but this year's garden is here! the crocus snow bunting have been in bloom since late january, and the iris reticulata pixie shortly after that. before i started gardening, i thought that the colorado winter lasted forever, and i mourned those five long months between november and april. now, thanks to the ever steady purple pixie and the voluptuously prolific snow bunting, winter seems short, even insignificant. my neighbors think that my garden was tricked by a few days of unseasoningly warm weather last month, but my plants are not easily fooled. these pictures were taken today in the boulder foothills, february 18th, 2009
my daughter sofia
my four-year old daughter sofia seems to want to post a blog entry every time i'm on the computer, so you might occasionally see one of her creations. she takes a lot of time with them.
February 17, 2009
s0fia
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February 16, 2009
ready for spring, february 14, 2009
my little girl sofia loves to help me in the garden. she is four now, and today she had the idea that if she patted the dirt down in the big terracotta pots, it would help the bulbs below grow faster. she is explaining all of this to me here, shovel in hand, like a true little gardener: "i'm patting the dirt down so the bulbs will come up nice and padded." she doesn't know what the bulbs will look like, or what their names will be, but she knows that they will be cool looking. we spent the day making valentines. sofia figured out exactly what she wanted to put into each of the thirty red envelopes, and i cut out the hearts. she wanted to make them all by herself, and she didn't like it that I had to help her.
February 15, 2009
rock garden meadow in early summer
above is a picture of the right side of my backyard rock garden in late spring. i call this part the rock garden meadow because it's mostly flat. in the middle, purple sensation alliums are fading behind the tall deep purple iris, which are getting ready to bloom. three determined gladiator alliums grow steadily upwards in the foreground. my parents gave me the purple iris as one of my first garden plants when they came out to see me shortly after i moved into my new house in the summer of 2007. at that time, i was only just starting an idea of a garden, and all i knew was that i liked purple. since dad found the iris in bloom at a local nursery, this is the first year i have been able to watch them grow from the ground up. they are amazingly powerful before, in, and after bloom. on the distant right, may night, an energetically dependable and long-blooming salvia, is already in its early summer regalia. turkish veronica, which hugs the ground in a steady but uncommitted kind of way, throws out a very sweet peep of blue here and there. i took the picture above on may 21, 2008, and it was only a short week later that the iris and gladiators bloomed, in brilliant shades of purple (see top three photographs). the blooms were closed on may 28th and open on may 29th, what a difference a day can make! i'm not sure what the tall iris are called. i wasn't paying much attention to names back then. there are two kinds of tall purple iris here, one dark and brooding and one dark and bright. identification anyone?
from a letter to my sister, March 9, 2008
something happened in november of 2007 that seemed like it would change my relationship with my sister forever, and i buried my fears of what the future might bring, or not bring, by feverishly digging holes for 786 miniature mediterranean bulbs all throughout the little rock garden that whirls around my back patio like an atlanta cyclorama, except without the battle. most of the bulbs were sent to me from the dependable high country gardens and promised solid true shades of blue and purple. i told my sister about them in the first email i wrote to her after four months of pretty much not talking to her, during what was a really sad time for me. the first blooms of 2008 came up in late february: the little white crocus snow bunting, which peak up through the snow and persevere until they disappear, and the little purple and blue iris reticulata pixie and harmony, which get bigger and stronger as they grow taller until the flowers fade and the rest of the plant turns into long slender green grassy sweeps of foliage. i wrote my sister on march 9th, just wanting to let her know that i was still here, thinking of her, and waiting for hundreds of new bulbs to pop up through my pea gravel rock garden mulch.
"it's spring here and the first 50 crocuses i planted last november and december became 110 white snow bunting, then all 100 wild irises started to bloom, 50 deep deep purple and 50 blue deep purple. the two groups kind of swirl down from the kali statue, which is tilted up on a slab of orangish red colorado flagstone. it's still cold here at times, but it's really sunny. we all went on a full day bike ride with sofia in the burley today and then ended up with our weekly sushi on the mall, which we haven't been doing for months because it's been too cold. sofia is eating crab sushi rolls now, without the avocados and the cucumbers. sofia rode her own bike the first part of the way, her fancy pink specialized bike with fat wheels, and two wobbly training wheels on the back. she grew over the last three months indoors and now she is fast! we found this out yesterday when we went out to see if she remembered how to ride a bike while momma d took a much needed break. i'm waiting on the other 700 or so bulbs i planted in the fall to start coming up in the next two months. i can't remember what they all were but these things are tiny. even 50 of these wild irises, which are bigger than the crocuses, take up only about two square feet."
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