How does your garden grow?

At the dawn of time--or, at least, in nursery school--I grew extremely fond of a sunflower, which managed to survive Southern CA adobe clay to grow extremely tall.  (Yes, that's me above, courtesy of my grandmother's pen.  I had to darken the photograph slightly.)  That was pretty much the end of my enthusiasm for gardening, an activity I regarded with the excitement I usually reserved for quadratic equations.   However, more recently, kicking and screaming, I have been (gulp) planting things...when I haven't been watching my mother planting things.    Planting has been even more on my mind as of late, thanks to a surfeit of Dirt.  (No, not Philip Pullman's Dust--just dirt.)  As I've mentioned here before, the previous owner of my house loved trees but not landscaping, which means that the shade has done in a good chunk of the backyard lawn; under the circumstances, I've decided to plant lots of shade/partial shade plants and forget the grass, a strategy that, at the very least, will reduce the mowing quota.  (This is a quarter-acre lot, so less mowing is a good thing.)  Anyway, thanks to a Hanukkah present from Mom the Retired School Administrator, I'm reseeding the front lawn and regrading the backyard (which includes removing those extraneous baby trees that keep cropping up in the planter).   So far this year, I've planted some Non-Mysterious Ground Cover (as opposed to the front yard's obnoxious Mysterious Ground Cover, which I've been trying to eradicate for five or six years) with pretty little blue flowers; three hydrangeas in various colors; and some viola and johnny jump-up seeds, which may or may not grow.  Once the gardeners have finished with the regrading, I plan to put in a bunch of hostas, flowering shrubs of various sorts, and, yes, more Non-Mysterious Ground Cover (multiple types).  I've also got a number of bulbs--lilies, gladiolas, etc.--that are mainly destined for the front yard.  However, I still refuse to call myself a gardener.  I refuse, I tell you! (I think this may be a leftover adolescent impulse at work.) 

Comments

[Rich Puchalsky]

No, no, only plant edible perennials. Your yard should ideally require no labor except that needed to reach out and pluck and eat something.

[FingerPaint]

Is the title of the post a reference to the Agatha Christie novel?

[RLapides]

It's a lovely drawing.

[Suzanne]

The lilies and gladiolas will require staking...gardens always make more work!