Author: Contemplation Garden

Indoor Veggie Garden

A couple of weeks ago I saw a segment on Gardeners’ World (BritBox) about growing veggies indoors by cutting off the bottoms (after consuming the tops) and placing them in water in a bright location. Turns out it actually works. Pictured clockwise from far left — bok choy, cabbage, onion, napa cabbage and celery. I was about to throw out the cabbage, but it finally started showing signs of life. The onion is more recent, but it already has roots.

Tonight for dinner, I will sauté the bok choy, napa cabbage, and celery with some shrimp in olive oil. Here’s my seasoning for the shrimp marinade: 

1 t roasted paprika
1-1/2 t Mexican oregano
1 clove of garlic chopped
salt and pepper to taste

I will add the seasonings to the frozen shrimp, so they will combine with the liquid as the shrimp thaw.

Yum! Can’t wait.

Robin

Last week a robin showed up in the garden and began using one of the branches of the vitex tree as a springboard to throw himself at the window, over and over again. The loud thumping could be heard in the house morning, noon, and evening. As it continued day after day, I confess, it became quite annoying, especially during my afternoon nap! I tapped on the window whenever I was nearby, but he was undeterred. He just kept coming back.

I wondered how this robin could keep throwing himself at the window without hurting himself, so I watched from inside. To my dismay, I realized he could keep it up forever. Each time he flew at the window, he executed a neat quarter-backflip, thumped the window with his feet, and then flew back to his perch completely unharmed.

Gentle Reader, though I was sympathetic to his mating ritual, after more than a week, I decided to take action. This morning, I created a cage made of picture hanging wire around his favorite branch, so he could no longer perch there.

So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted if he outsmarts me.

The robin on his perch, prior to the wire cage

Almost

My potted roses are almost ready to bloom. In addition to the red roses, the pink, rose, gold, and coral-colored roses (not pictured) are also ready to pop. Most of them will bloom all summer, but they will never again be as beautiful as they will be in April.

I can’t wait.

Just getting started

The trees are coming into leaf, and the garden is just beginning to bloom (Cherry Sage and Vinca pictured above). Baby steps.

April and May will be the most beautiful months when everything comes into bloom. The roses are in bud now. They should be gorgeous in a few weeks. I look forward to making bouquets for the Blessed Virgin and the Lord Jesus.

This morning, I played my lap harp on the back porch while the birds chirped along. Were they wondering what kind of bird I am?

“The birds can’t stop singing”

Recently a friend in Ireland, who was having a rare sunny day, expressed her joy by exclaiming, “The birds can’t stop singing!” All the wonder of springtime seemed to be captured in that evocative phrase.

I thought about the empty bird bath in our back yard, which I hadn’t filled since last fall. Throughout the winter, a stray dove or wren would occasionally wander through the yard, but for the most part, they disappeared.

I feel guilty, Gentle Reader. I really do.

So, I filled the bird bath a couple of days ago, and the birds are back. Instead of singing at sunrise and sunset, as the wrens usually do, they’ve been singing all through the live-long day. And the doves can’t stop cooing.

They are very forgiving.

Tomorrow

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” (Audrey Hepburn)

Outside in the courtyard, my vinca (periwinkle) displays a strange mix of tired old leaves left over from last season along with some tender new shoots that promise a lovely spring. I need to take cuttings and stick them into some dirt. That’s all they need – that, and a little water. Vinca simply wants to grow.

What would we do without the promise of spring?

And then there were bats…

A couple of weeks ago, a neighbor told me about the bats that were hanging from her stucco walls and leaving their droppings on her porch every night. I was thinking how lucky I was not to have this pesky problem. Imagine my dismay when I discovered bat droppings under the vitex tree in the courtyard a week later. And the next day, and the next…

I didn’t want to poison them. (A bat’s got to live, after all.) The general consensus among my neighbors was to add light to the area, so I ordered some hanging solar lights.

Now my courtyard looks like Christmas, and there are no more droppings. Thank you, my strange, winged friends, for bringing some holiday cheer a little early.

I must admit, though – the little darlings are much more charming in their absence.

They Know

All summer long I have faithfully watered my purple cloud shrubs, and all summer long they have produced only a few blossoms. Then we finally had a soaking rain a few weeks ago. I began to watch for the profusion of blossoms that always appears after a generous downpour.

This week my shrubs are wildly blooming. Gentle reader, they know the difference. They know when the water comes from God.

Flowers Are Important

Plumbago

It’s late summer when much of the garden is looking dusty and a little brown around the edges, but the plumbago is still flowering. The tall sedums are coming into bloom, and the roses are still providing color. In every season, I manage to have something blooming in the courtyard. Later in the fall, I will pot up multi-colored violas, because they will survive an occasional crusting of snow and ice in winter.

I need flowers. They are essential for my well-being. When I was working outside of the home, I usually bought an inexpensive bunch of flowers for my desk on Mondays. They kept me going throughout the week. No matter how stressful or tedious my job became, just gazing at a bouquet of blue irises made everything better.

The beauty of a tender blossom is delicate and fleeting, but I can deal with the grief of its passing as long as there are more buds on the way.

Flowers remind me that Life is never exhausted.