It’s a beautiful summer day here in Portland, Oregon.
I’m loving my garden.
I have a pretty large terraced yard on a hillside and this spring & summer, during Shelter in Place, I’ve devoted many hours to not only my dahlia cutting garden (birthday present to myself, 40+ tubers), but also to weeding and pruning all the beds, growing veggies and other flowers, putting in yet another rock retaining wall, and prepping for more fruit trees. Earlier this week I worked on the themed beds in Blue Eyes’ walking meditation garden outside his tea house. I spent a lot of time on the New Zealand bed, which had grown wild with wire vines (muehlenbeckia) that were spilling out all over the gravel walking path.
The dahlia garden has been a total labor of love. After The Peacemaker and I spent a couple weeks in May prepping the beds, pulling out weeds, and shrubs, amending the soil, etc… I planted the tubers and then waited patiently. Eventually they put out their sprouts, and now they have grown into big, healthy plants, most of which are putting out multiple blooms.
Today’s bouquet:
Growing up, both my grandmas had beautiful flower borders at the entrances to their homes. My mom’s mom had roses, and a white picket fence. My dad’s mom had hanging fuchsia baskets around the house, and ice plants in the beds along the front walk. I always knew that when I had my own home, I would have a welcoming flower bed at the front. We’ve lived in this home for nearly 24 years, and barring the first couple years post dday, I’ve planted zinnia plants from the nursery in our front beds.
This year I ordered teeny, tiny starts from our csa farm, lots and lots of little starts. I was so worried for their survival, but I shouldn’t have. They have thrived. I didn’t lose a single plant, and they are such a beautiful variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. I check them daily making sure they are happy. They’re right out front for the whole neighborhood to enjoy, a stretch of about 100′!
And then this morning a large moving van showed up in front of our house. After spending a good 15-20 minutes figuring out where to park, he ends up parking on top of part of my zinnia bed.
The movers are here for the next door neighbors. I’m not sure if they’re moving stuff in, or out, and I don’t really care. I went outside and expressed my concern for my plants and asked them to please be very careful when pulling out so as not to demolish more of my flowers. They don’t speak English. I texted the neighbor, who was nowhere to be found and this is what she texted back…
“I’m sorry they parked so close to your flowers, but it must be crazy difficult to maneuver those big trucks. I’ll ask them to be careful when they leave.”
They’re still here, hours later, so I can’t even properly survey the damage. If it was me, I would have asked them immediately to move their truck, like to in front of my own property instead of a neighbor’s property?!?!
Who parks on somebody’s garden? #2020isabitch
try not to cry on my rainbow 
Those flowers are love 😍😍😍
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I so love your flower photos, besides they really make up such a beautiful and peaceful background on my iPhone 🤗You don’t by chance have an instagram where you post garden-nature-related photos regularly? 😬
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I do, Ease. I will send it in an email. ❤️
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Thank you❤️💐
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I just love your photos, Kat, and I love your gardens.
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Thank you, beleeme! I’m going to share some more photos soon. Some days I spend 6-8 hours in the garden. Not this weekend though… too hot. ❤️
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That garden is amazing. Now I know why it is one of your favorite places.
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It’s a labor of love. I need to take a photo of that cucumber trellis. The cukes have gone wild! 😁
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Nice. Just like my Mom’s garden. She loves to garden and interact with nature. It’s her thing. I’m more of a geek, addicted to tech. I like working on my laptop, watching videos and movies, and gaming. Gaming is my equivalent to your and my Mom’s gardnening.
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My son is a gamer and a movie buff. My husband is a geek/workaholic, and our business deals in technology, so he gets his fix. I have always loved being in the garden. We all have our loves, and our hobbies. It makes sheltering in place a little easier. We also have a large house on three separate floors. That helps too! 😁
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That is really nice. On those days, you just want to be by yourself, you can find a cubbie hole, a good book, and a warm cup of tea and be right as rain.
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Excellent garden, it is not to much to ask that others treasure it as you do, but perhaps too much to expect they will.
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Yeah I was pretty shocked that someone would be so disrespectful. There was really no reason to park there and quite obvious that my flower bed was meticulously maintained. They didn’t even apologize. When they finally left, there numerous destroyed plants. Frustrating!
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I’m so sorry. My plants are like my babies. We pour a lot of love into them.
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Every day I pour love into them, and water, and fertilizer. I deadhead them and baby them. And this is the area everyone in the neighborhood can see. It’s just wrong. It has been suggested I call the company and lodge a complaint. I just don’t do that kind of thing. I’m kind and respectful and hope others behave the same. Unfortunately some don’t. 😢
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Maybe the lawyer in the family could make the call? 🤔 Pretty sure he’d be on it if the movers damaged the tea house. Just saying….
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BE is the one who took the photos. He was angry on my behalf and definitely would have taken it further. There’s really no replacing the effort and intrinsic value. The surviving plants are fine. I’m just so disappointed in human behavior at this point. A complete lack of respect for others is so disheartening.
I have to laugh about the tea house comment as I picture a moving van somehow getting to our back garden. It would have had to traverse two narrow flights of stairs down, barrel through a couple fences/gates and destroy A LOT of plantings to get there, so it would be a spectacular sight, but I do understand what you are saying.
BE totally appreciates the effort I’ve put into the garden this year. I make him go look at my dahlia garden twice a day, lol!
I hope your summer has been relaxing. And if not so relaxing, then I hope it’s been productive. What a strange year! ❤️
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Right! Who does that!!! Gorgeous pics … and I can only imagine how beautiful the actual garden is.
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It’s definitely been my shelter in place happy spot. Therefore, I was a bit unreasonably sad the whole day. I guess I was most upset that the neighbor didn’t ask them to move the truck immediately. Very selfish. I hope they moved out. Their house is dark. They’re in their early 30’s and apparently nobody taught them manners. I don’t know them well. As soon as they moved in they put an 8’ tall security fence around their house. I cleaned up the mess. Hopefully what’s left will bounce back.
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