There I've said it.
It's out there for all the world to hear.
I Love my Garden.
I have just read an article from Oliver Sacks, a New York Doctor who passed in 2015. The article was sent to me by a friend who intends to use my/our garden for meditation and reinvigorating the human spirit. It's a suggestion that Dr. Sacks made and something he did for his patients- taking them to nearby botanical gardens for plant therapy".
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| Our Pine Tree House Garden in Orillia, Ontario |
Sit and reflect.
Dream.
I get that feeling too from the garden that the Mister and I have here on Vancouver Island and from the memories and photos of our garden back in "old home" in Orillia, Ontario. A garden is a wonderful place whether it be a secret garden or a garden for all to see. I love walking along a street and peering into a garden behind a cedar fence or brick wall. It's like peering into someone's imagination- or soul.
Their choice of plants.
The arrangement of pathways and flowers beds.
The colourful containers holding multi-coloured, spreading blooms adding colour and life to a space.
Every garden has a unique personality. It could be totally the garden's owner that shines through or a garden might even take on a personality of its own.
I have a fondness for quirky garden accessories from gnomes to welcoming seating to Greek statues and car parts.
Car parts?
Yes. I have some small car parts sprinkled throughout one garden.
A fan blade.
A rusted alternator and another unidentifiable rusty-red piece of metal- once part of a vehicle that hummed along Island Roads. I collected these bits from the land behind Palm Villa which at one time hosted a bit of an auto wreckers. Probably- from what I can find out, just one guy with a yard and a penchant for collecting and perhaps fixing old vehicles that were past their prime.
It's difficult when you have to leave a garden you've tended for over two decades. Tom and I did just that when we hitched our wagon- RV really, and made the trek out here.
Good Gosh, we had to love that Ontario garden to bits because we brought 50 Lily plants all the way west and they are thriving here in our Mediterranean climate. Some lilies have had flower bracts on them for a couple of weeks. I apologize to many Ontario Gardeners who are just now looking at daffodils beginning to sprout. Been there done that here on the Island. We also brought some garden statuary with us in our move. Our Lion Head fountain and our frog which pumped water into a pond- not only at Pine Tree House in Orillia but in our previous home in Mississauga. Now, that little greenish-blue, concrete froggy is spewing water into a new pond here in our backyard in the Cowichan. The frog does more work here since the pond becomes active in early March and is still splish-sploshing in November- even longer if it had not been for a cruel cold streak last December and repeated in February.
Gad!
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| Gardens at Palm Villa on Vancouver Island |
I've already planted a small laurel plant and a bridal veil- in full bloom. Tom replaced a clematis which didn't make it through the "winter" season. Speaking of making it, my green banana plant that reached up to the sky about 14 feet has started to pop up a few inches- more every day. The green banana in the south garden is up a couple of feet and is pushing out new shoots every second day it seems.
Since Tom and I broke the bank last year when it came to buying plants from garden centres and greenhouses, we are trying to let plants flourish that are already in the garden. It's difficult to browse a garden centre and not buy a thing. Case in point is the Sandpiper Garden Centre in Old Chemainus. Her plants are wonderful and she has quirky accessories as well. I could spend money there- and alas, I did.
Well, just a small plant- or two.
You know how it is...
