The garden has a few lines from my poems on the fence, sculptures by local artist Shannon Hansen, monarch caterpillars, lists of my favorite native plants, books for sale, and two dozen plants I'm giving away. Let's go.
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| Yellow Pollen Coneflower |
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| Winecup |
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| Asclepias purpurascens |
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| Red-spotted purple on iris |
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| You never know what you might come across |
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| Plant Milkweed!!! (& not the orange butterfly weed-- try swamp, sullivant's, or purple for more monarchs) |
If you'd like to see the 1,500 foot garden from its humble beginnings (20 yards of mulch) in 2007 to what it is now, link here. A better way to see the visual timeline and various wildlife is to visit the fan page on Facebook for The Deep Middle.
And here's a link to some shaky video. It would not have been shaky if technology didn't move so fast.
If you'd like to tour the garden in a more literary way, why not check out some chapters from my manuscript Sleep, Creep, Leap: The First Three Years of a Garden. Link here (First Garden), and here (On Mulching), or here (Visiting Nurseries).
Now, I have to go pull some hair, I mean weeds.
18 comments:
Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow. I'm so sorry, I can't be there, Benjamin. I hope you have a fantastic day - everything looks gorgeous. I LOVE the poems on the fence.I'll be thinking of you!
Victoria--I was counting on you coming! It's not that far. :) If you ever come to the middle of nowhere USA, I'd be honored for you to visit.
I wish you a steady flow of visitors. Who will share your love of native plants, appreciate your poetry, and go home full of garden inspiration.
Thanks for the pre-tour. What a great reason for following blogs......you are onto something. And I love the poetry in the garden!! Have fun and be defiant where necessary. It is your space and no one can understand like you do.
Sorry, my Gulf Stream is in the hangar this weekend having the seats recovered in rhino skin, otherwise I'd be there. I really enjoyed the video tour, it gives you a sense of how the garden flows that you can't get from photos.
Wow, that looks great. I LOVE the poems, maybe I'll post a few myself next year on tour day.
Have fun. Everything looks luscious. Having survived 339 visitors, I can't imagine 1000, but you're younger than I am and I'm sure you'll be fine.
Sorry to miss it Benjamin but 1001 visitors might cross the tipping point! The sculpture is very cool. Good luck and enjoy.
EE--The oft hoped for hope....
C--Defiant? I think forgiving and congenial is better. I can get angry privately later on (which I might).
Les--Rhino skin? Kinda rough, right?
TM--Younger by what, 10 minutes? I'm sure it'll be a crazy day, and very very hot.
MG--Yeah, tipping point might even be at 500! Want to buy a sculpture? $750. You come pick it up. :)
Have a great tour. Hope the 1000 visitors don't smash you garden.
My feet are definitely gonna be smelling the dew today. The garden looks lovely and your poems and the lovely sculptures enhance the experience - I'm looking forward to reading the chapters you posted, of your new book.
James--only lost a few goundcover sedum. Not bad, given the intimately narrow paths.
CM--I'm thinking I'll have to try and self publish that book, since I've had no takers from presses. The garden is the intersection of sculptures and words--how could it not mingle with those things on a tour?
Looks like it was great! Love the "milkweed" poster. Just planted some in my garden this year.
WG--Yay for milkweed!! Swamp?
Hi Benjamin,
I didn't see this post before the tour. I wish I would have. I usually go to these kinds of tours by myself so I can go when I want, and not make anyone wait until I'm ready to move on, but I decided to invite Janet because she had invited me to go to an iris farm half an hour away earlier in the season, and I didn't want to go. She and her husband wanted to eat brunch first, so she wasn't ready until an hour into the tour.
We got your last 2 plants. She took a fennel, and I took a teeny baby wild senna. I forgot to take them out of the car, and Larry put something on them. The fennel did not make it, but the senna looked unfazed. I am planning on going to another arboretum plant sale tomorrow, and get a couple Paniacum virgatum, 'Northwind' and a few other perennials for the front yard. Maybe I'll get another wild senna. I need to figure out which parts of the front yard are the most moist.
I was glad to see your garden again, and enjoyed the video, as well as the one from last year. There were a lot of people in your yard! We noticed some of the sedums had been stepped on.
I didn't get a photo of the wild quinine, but saw it in the video. I hope letting mine bloom doesn't prevent it from bushing out.
I hope your caterpillars are doing well. Last I looked, my one that I know of was getting pretty big.
Sue--Yeah, several sedum were smashed flat to the thickness of a hair. It was bad, but that was it. I was impressed how considerate most folks were of my narrow paths (I staked a lot of plants back on Saturday to mitigate breakage). Our two monarchs are now chrysalides, and I have 4, 2nd instars inside from the lone female we saw last week laying eggs. I'm glad to hear the senna at least made it--I spent so much time potting up free plants, thought I had so many (and then no one even thanked me!). I found several senna babies in the path last week so potted them up--don't see any under thicker vegetation. Good luck with it!
Nice online tour for those of us not able to attend. The garden is maturing and sounds so alive in the video.
Your garden is lovely and does much to encourage any tour guest leaning toward a more natural style of gardening.
Oops! Thank you! That was thoughtful of you to take the time to do that while getting ready for the tour on top of that. I imagine you are ready to enjoy your garden for yourself now. We sure are having nice weather.
Larry and I work at Lincoln High, and are off for the summer. I just told him that if I was at work now, I'd be doing my job, and not having to decide between the multiple things I need or want to do. It is so nice out, and I want to be out gardening, but I have groceries to get, and we are straightening up our house because a lady might be bringing Larry's motorcycle over from Omaha.
Well, I'm finished eating lunch. I hope you are enjoying this weather.
Gloria--Thank you!! There is so much more wildlife each year as plants mature, flowers and cover.
Sue--You're welcome. :)
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