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"Are you nuts? They're frozen!" my neighbor Connie hollered across the street as she caught me standing outside with a garden hose at 6 a.m. on a 29 degree morning, spraying water on flowerbeds. It was a desperate attempt to rescue a few dozen more blooms and herbs for potpourri... perfectly normal behavior, right?
It's not as though I need more flowers brought inside. Every table, every counter, every shelf is covered with vases of roses and other flowers. My kids are complaining that there are no drinking glasses because they're all full of flowers. Dozens of paper bags of drying herbs and potpourri hang from every available hook. There are so many pots of plants I dug up to rescue from the cold in my living room that I should really hang out a shingle and open a flower shop.
My refrigerator is full of mysterious jars of liquid marked "do not drink" that contain potions such as mint extract, rose water,and so forth. There is a plate of "bath cookies" marked "do not eat" on my dining room table made from my fresh mint harvest. I have enough bags of saved seed to supply someone with about 50 flower beds. Need more? I think not...
It's just that my yard kind of... well... exploded on me, and I can't say goodbye!
Before turning into the "psychotic flower lady," as my teenaged son now calls me (I don't want to know what the neighbors call me!), I started out with a few basic perennials and vegetables. My sister-in-law brought my mother-in-law's spring bulbs to me to care for after she passed away. At that point, I had a couple of decent flower beds and some nice tomatoes. Things didn't get really crazy until about 2000!
Two things happened that summer to change my yard from relative normality to the "psychotic flower lady's house." First, I discovered the concept of lasagna gardening. For someone with a bad back who can't dig dirt, this was sent from heaven. Secondly, a microburst came through and took out a giant cottonwood in our front yard. While the tree removers dug up the stump, we had them remove a second cottonwood in our side yard. From this, I ended up with two 15' by 15' "blank canvases" of tree mulch on which to paint flowers of every description.
With the help of my kids, I moved perennials to fill in, and hit a few well-timed plant clearance sales. I remember, on one infamous June day, coming home with my neighbor with a pickup truck full of clearance annuals. I sat on the steps with a cup of coffee, planning what to do with my new "babies," and thinking I'd gone just a bit overboard. Just then, the UPS truck drove up with seven packages of perennial flowers and bushes I'd ordered from mail order catalogs!
My neighbors were all coming over to see what in the world was going on. Suffice it to say, it was a long week! Besides the two large "tree" beds, I ended up having enough flowers to add several small flower beds and an herb garden. All in all there are now 17 beds (from tiny strip beds to the large tree beds) to care for and enjoy, mostly perennial plants or reseeding annuals.
With the wheelbarrows of mulch my son hauled in for me from the nearby creek, there was little weeding to do so it was mostly a matter of watering, deadheading, and watching everything grow for the last three months. It was such a thrill to have a neighbor stop by while walking her dog to thank me for the beautiful flowers, or to have the little girl across the street ask me if she could pick some roses for her big sister's birthday.
It more than makes up for the good-natured kidding I take from my two neighbors every time I raid their newspaper and yard waste bins for more "lasagna" material!! The yard waste truck doesn't get a chance in this neighborhood any more. It's all I can do right now to restrain myself from putting up a "free leaves wanted" sign in my front yard!!
But alas, tonight is time to say goodbye until Spring. It's supposed to drop to the mid-20's the next three nights and nothing can postpone Winter's march onto Flowerland, as I have jokingly renamed my home. The only question is, do I stay in the house and have a pity party tonight as they freeze, or should I faithfully stand vigil as the water from the hose hardens to an ice sculpture? I think I'll spend the evening looking at seed catalogs. I want to plant a white garden next year. Now that'll cheer me up!
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