It amazes me how simple sights can trigger emotion and enhance the imagination. The garden abounds with images for the mind, especially after a season change. Today my wife commented how she loves the way the sunflowers look now. As I've blogged before, the sunflowers are her special place in the garden. The exploding golden colors, the gigantic faces turning toward the sun, the forest of shade from elephantine stalks. Even as the moribund petals slowly faded, she focused her attention and pleasure on that section of the garden.
Today the color is gone. The seeds have been neatly cleaned by the birds. The fanning leaves are shriveled and torn. All that remains are darkened heads resting atop slender and sturdy towers. In the cold of morning with a glazing of frost, they obviously invoke a singular beauty for her. It's a unique garden presence that can't be duplicated during the fertility of summer.
Today the sunflowers make me think of the Martian invaders from the classic 1953 film, "The War of the Worlds". As Gene Barry hides in the basement, the metallic probe snakes through the darkness; he beheads it with an axe. The probes that sprout from the invading spacecraft shoot death rays and remind me of the vigilant sunflowers in my garden. It's an image that makes me smile.
Like my wife, I enjoy looking at the sunflowers, but, more importantly, I relish the entire garden during fall and winter. I think it's advantageous to plant with four seasons in mind. Flowers in full bloom attain the beauty many gardeners seek, but you can enjoy many other aspects of beauty as the year progresses. Miniature icicles sparkling in the winter sun as they drip from dried coneflowers are a wonder to behold. Delicate ice crystals that blanket apricot blossoms after a freezing fog in early spring are photograph-worthy even as they destroy the crop.
During fall, blowing leaves change the landscape as they catch on withering flowers, and bushes, and decorative grass. As the snow billows in, it rests upon the same leaves and plants as it sculpts the gardens into an ethereal museum of artistic wonder.
I'm all for cleaning up your garden and having it ready for spring planting, but delaying the clean up can add so much. There isn't much you can say about barren soil lying flat beneath the frost and snow. But the dead plants you were so quick to remove could have created a framework for the same frost and snow. The result may have been something to remember and treasure.
My sunflowers will remain on guard through the new year. Only after they've given us every conceivable viewpoint of weather and season will I remove them and plant a new crop. The same can be said for most of my plants. A garden doesn't need to be filled with color to be beautiful.
It amazes me how simple sights can trigger emotion and enhance the imagination. The garden abounds with images for the mind, especially after a season change. Today my wife commented how she loves the way the sunflowers look now. As I've blogged before, the sunflowers are her special place in the garden. The exploding golden colors, the gigantic faces turning toward the sun, the forest of shade from elephantine stalks. Even as the moribund petals slowly faded, she focused her attention and pleasure on that section of the garden.
Today the color is gone. The seeds have been neatly cleaned by the birds. The fanning leaves are shriveled and torn. All that remains are darkened heads resting atop slender and sturdy towers. In the cold of morning with a glazing of frost, they obviously invoke a singular beauty for her. It's a unique garden presence that can't be duplicated during the fertility of summer.
Today the sunflowers make me think of the Martian invaders from the classic 1953 film, "The War of the Worlds". As Gene Barry hides in the basement, the metallic probe snakes through the darkness; he beheads it with an axe. The probes that sprout from the invading spacecraft shoot death rays and remind me of the vigilant sunflowers in my garden. It's an image that makes me smile.
Like my wife, I enjoy looking at the sunflowers, but, more importantly, I relish the entire garden during fall and winter. I think it's advantageous to plant with four seasons in mind. Flowers in full bloom attain the beauty many gardeners seek, but you can enjoy many other aspects of beauty as the year progresses. Miniature icicles sparkling in the winter sun as they drip from dried coneflowers are a wonder to behold. Delicate ice crystals that blanket apricot blossoms after a freezing fog in early spring are photograph-worthy even as they destroy the crop.
During fall, blowing leaves change the landscape as they catch on withering flowers, and bushes, and decorative grass. As the snow billows in, it rests upon the same leaves and plants as it sculpts the gardens into an ethereal museum of artistic wonder.
I'm all for cleaning up your garden and having it ready for spring planting, but delaying the clean up can add so much. There isn't much you can say about barren soil lying flat beneath the frost and snow. But the dead plants you were so quick to remove could have created a framework for the same frost and snow. The result may have been something to remember and treasure.
My sunflowers will remain on guard through the new year. Only after they've given us every conceivable viewpoint of weather and season will I remove them and plant a new crop. The same can be said for most of my plants. A garden doesn't need to be filled with color to be beautiful.
Your article makes me want to bundle up, get outside and take a walk through the garden.
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