“Have you ever noticed the relationship between children and the soil? Watch how happily they are touching the dirt. The children play in it and eat it. If you are stressed, go to a spot on the Earth, sit down, put your fingers in the dirt, dig in it. Wash your hands in the soil. When you touch it, notice what it does to your hands. Our bodies love to touch the Earth. Sometimes we get too busy and forget these simple things. Maybe you'll even want to plant a garden or flowers. These things are mentally healthy.”
I'm home! Who'd have thought it would be possible to feel so much deep contentment only a month after moving to a new place! I have been in no hurry to unpack and so there are still piles of boxes, but it will all get done in time. I have worked very hard in the garden this week, since I have had some free days and it hasn't been raining. I had forgotten how deeply content I feel when I am playing in the dirt. I have been an avid gardener since my first zinnia patch at age ten, but for the last 18 years I have not had a garden. I have had container plants and lots of houseplants. I even grew tomatoes and green peppers in pots in Oneonta, but I didn't have a garden.
The garden that existed here on the east side of the house (which is my front yard) consisted of an eighteen inch strip around the house covered with plastic and one inch chunks of decorative rock. In front of the bay window, it was two or three feet of rocks, with a strange assortment of pots filled with dirt, including a plastic barrel that had been sawed in half to make two very large containers. There were even two refrigerator vegetable drawers serving as containers. The smaller pots had been set in old cast iron skillets. Very "country," perhaps, but not very attractive. So that all had to be cleared away. The barrel containers were so heavy that I had to scoop out much of the dirt before I could move them. The rocks had become deeply embedded so it was not an easy task to get to the plastic. I wanted all of that out of the way so that I could work directly with the soil.
Rick had put in a cement patio and 42-foot front walk when he poured the floor for the new barn. And he had brought in loads of dirt with a Bobcat and dumped it along the front walk and in front of the patio where I wanted my garden. Some of the borders I was able to pick out the rocks by hand and carried panloads out to the dirt road to be dumped. I would have done the same with the bay window, though it would have taken a week. So I was very pleased to have the help of a couple of the construction workers, who brought the Bobcat right up to the window and shoveled in all the rocks. They also built me a 13x8 foot frame for my vegetable garden which now sits up on the hill in front of the root cellar roof. Then Rick brought in more loads of dirt and filled it up for me. He even brought his tiller and ran it over the borders along the front walk and patio. When all that was done, we had lots more rocks, clumps of cement and clay and grass, and it took three more trips with the Bobcat to remove all that. But finally I have my garden.
I have put in 3 Hydrangea bushes, a white Bleeding Hearts plant, tubers for six Astilbe and six tall Phlox plants, several varieties of Campanula, and divided up 4 pots of Osteospermum. Today I will get in a half dozen Lamb's Ears, some Cheddar Pinks, an Aster (from Perrine), and some Daisies, Clustered Bellflowers, Celandine Poppies, and Yarrow (all from Diane at the library.) Perrine also gave me a couple of ceramic patio bunnies. And oh yes -- there is some Lamium and Sweet Woodruff for the shady area under the bay window. There is a small patch of Bearded Iris already growing and almost ready to bloom. There were a few tulips earlier. In fact, the first tulip bloomed the morning after my first night here. I also bought 6 planters with assorted pansies for the patio.
I have a lot more plans for the garden, having poured over garden design books for weeks now, but I have spent the alloted $300 that Rick was willing to reimburse me. Oh! I forgot the Rose bush that is at one corner of the patio. It looks to be a climbing variety. Eventually, I would like to get several more roses, some peonies, and some day lilies. I also have some Clematis to plant if I can find a sunny spot for a trellis, and two Lilac bushes. I haven't decided where to put those yet.
There are a couple of old bird feeders hanging outside the window. Goldfinches, House Finches, and Chipping Sparrows visit one regularly. The other one is a hummingbird feeder which I need to bring inside, clean, and refill, but I have already seen one hummingbird. When I was digging holes for the Astilbe I discovered a garden toad. He was trying very hard to bury himself. I think toads are signs of good luck and prosperity according to Chinese tradition. I hope to see him again. This morning I discovered I had a baby bunny that had fallen into the deep window well outside my bedroom. I had heard scrabbling against the window for two nights and thought it was a squirrel climbing in and out. I went out with a big towel, climbed down in, and rescued the poor thing.
There has been a lot of work done on the inside of the house also. Rick had his carpentry buff uncle here for a week doing lots of odd jobs. They put in a new kitchen sink, new kitchen counters, a new back door, put in towel racks in the bathroom and kitchen, fixed my closet door, worked on some plumbing, put in a new bathtub faucet, fixed the drain, etc. etc. He also covered up some areas I was afraid the cats would disappear into. I already had Lily get up into the space between floors when I was putting stuff into the storage room. She wouldn't come back out the way she went in, and after a couple of hours of worrying and fretting I managed to remove one of the light panels in the bedroom, and then had to move a couple of ceiling panels in order to get her out. Believe me, I will not leave the door to that room open again! And I have blocked several other places in the laundry area where she might try to get up there again.
Good thing I have had quite a lot of extra hours at the library this month, since I have been spending money right and left. I bought new kitchen towels and floor mats, new towels and rugs for the bathroom, rugs for the front entry, air tight storage containers for the kitchen as it is damp and crackers and cookies were rapidly going soft. Yes, I am going to have to buy a dehumidifier! I promised myself I would buy new bookcases for the living room when I moved, so that I could throw away the cheap plastic shelves I had been using. Two of those have been put together and a third is waiting for me to do so. Dawn and Kathy have a lot of extra furniture in their basement from Kathy's mother and her late partner's estates. They brought me a much needed TV/entertainment center with shelves. And they are soon to bring me a white pantry cupboard for dishes which will go in my dining area.
Dawn and Kathy also brought me a very generous house-warming gift. They brought a friend out here with them for an evening of bridge, and brought me a glass-topped patio table with umbrella and four chairs. We temporarily set up the table (sans umbrella) in the living room and used it to play bridge! It is now sitting out on my patio where I can sit and enjoy my new garden. I would like to get a gazing globe and a bird bath. Perhaps I will find something when I go to pick up plants and seeds for the vegetable garden. Hooray for Memorial Day sales!
The cats love the front porch, and sit in the screened windows among my houseplants. They also love the bay window, as I do! The morning sun comes in there, and I sit and gaze out as I drink my morning tea. I watch the birds at the feeders, and listen to the many bird calls from the surrounding trees. I really haven't missed my old apartment, or the park at all. I have everything I want here, and I am content.
