This post, 2018 JUNE – Karla’s Garden Day, was written by
Glinda/Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.
A diminished group of Divas of the Dirt turned up for
Karla’s 2018 garden day on a very hot Saturday in June. She hoped we could weed
and clip a couple of beds in the back. Luckily for us, Karla’s neighborhood had
2.3” of rain a few days before we came – no weeding in rock-hard ground!
Unluckily for other people in the neighborhood, that storm also produced
straight line winds that brought down trees.
Only Karla and Mindy were there when I came. Buffy soon
joined us but she would be in-and-out for part of the day; DivaAnnie was still
in intensive care after surgery, Mattie was out-of-state and Sophia’s medical
issues were ongoing.
Karla had used some time off work to good effect in her
front garden…it was in such pristine condition that all we could do up there
was admire it!
The patio bed had a lovely little Anacacho orchid that was
still staked and it needed some adjustment. Weeding and composting were needed
along with digging/cutting out tree seedlings and saplings. Most of us live in
neighborhoods that are 20 to 40 years old, full of trees like oaks, hackberries
(the worst!), cedar elms, pecans, Arizona ashes, mulberries, China berries,
Chinese hollies, yaupons, ligustrums and more so tiny trees everywhere are an
unavoidable result.
Here’s one part of the patio bed after weeding, before
clipping, composting and mulching. It’s all foliage in the photo, but there
would soon be tubular orange Mexican Honeysuckle blossoms and the light,
true-blue blooms of Plumbago, followed in a few months by the lavender
daisy-shaped flowers of Fall Aster. Actually, late May-early June is a good
time to cut back Fall Aster – doing that can mean even more blooms in late
summer.
The Anacacho Orchid stood a little straighter, with Purple
Coneflowers at its feet.
Karla’s long fence border had a lot of color, but she had
chosen a restrained number of plant species.
The combination of
holly ferns, giant liriope and multi-colored Impatiens in this shadier
spot gave it a feeling of peacefulness and order…
…while the exuberant Echinacea purpurea/ Coneflowers added
some excitement nearer the patio where more sun shines. I’ll bet there were
butterflies later on, too.
One interesting effect of working in a small group in just
one area was that we had long, uninterrupted conversations… we were all worried
about Divas Annie and Sophia, shocked at the news that Anthony Bourdain had
killed himself in France and fascinated with Mindy’s tale of being on jury
duty. Talking as we worked made the steamy day seem shorter.
Karla had a very cool lunch ready for this very hot
day – a favorite chicken pasta salad, a green salad, tabouleh, rolls and
butter.
And her dessert of individual strawberry-rhubarb pies (with
ice cream) was as pretty to look at as it was delicious to eat.
I left a little early but Karla, Mindy and Buffy kept going
– the high for the day was 96.1°F – whew.
Karla sent a gracious email the next day,
“We were small in number, but we were mighty! … I can’t wait
to sit out there when it cools a bit this evening and enjoy the beauty.”
This post, 2018 JUNE – Karla’s Garden Day, was written by
Glinda/Annie in Austin for the Divas of the Dirt blog.
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