Getting Back to Serenity

I have been very busy this past month and I have neglected my gardens and I have neglected myself. In spite of my neglect, my garden continues to flurish. God blessed up with some beautiful rain showers after almost a month of hot dry weather. The flowers have demonstrated their gratitude by blooming virously. I do love flowers. They demonstrate everyday to me that I too can flurish if I just continue to put down my roots and take in nurishment.......

Zurvita | Zurvita Care Saver

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Unlikely Annuals

These dianthis grew volunteer from plants that I had last year. As you can see, they dominate the front of the flower garden.

Am I planted in the right spot??

This little hosta was planted in my front flower bed last year. It did not do very well. It got too much sun and not enough water. In the early spring, it was doing well, but as the summer progressed and the weather became hotter and drier; it started to wither and turn brown around the edges. Last fall I transplanted it to the garden on the north side of the house. this spring, it was later in coming up than my other hosta in the back yard garden. I am hopping that it was later only because where it is planted doesn't get as much sunshine. I am hoping that it will thrive and that I have found the right combination of soil, water, and sun.

Sometimes, I look at my personal life and there are areas that are not thriving. I have to look at these areas and see what is missing in my life that is not allowing that part of me to thrive. When I discover what the problem is, I need to take steps to correct it if I truly want to thrive. Just like with my plants, it may take a radical change. I need to decide, am I ready to go through the stress of the required change or do I choose to stay where I am and continue to be a puny plant when I have the potential to be a thriving healthy plant?? The choice is mine. My results and my health will be a result of the choice that I make. What about you? Are you thriving where you are planted? Do you need a change? Maybe nothing radical - maybe just some extra water or fertilizer??

Growing in unlikely places

This is a picture of my iris bed on the north side of the house. When we first moved into this house, this area was barren. It was covered in heavy bark mulch. Because it doesn't get a lot of sun, I wasn't sure what would grow here.

I had brought a lot of iris bulbs with me and knew that if they were going to have any chance of survival, they need to be at lest in the ground. The front side yard that now has flowers and rose bushes was filled with bushes and bark mulch. There was little room for much else.

In desperation, I decided to plant the iris on the north side of the house. I figured that I could transplant them the following year, but at least it would get them in the ground. As I started to dig? I mean cut my way through the layers of landscape cloth and plastic that covered the ground; I became even more doubtful that the bulbs would survive. There really wasn't any "soil" there - only layers of grass clippings. Each layer was covered by another layer of landscape cloth or plastic and more mulch. I planted the bulbs, but I did not have much hope that they would survive.

Imagine my surprise, when the bulbs started to sprout the next spring. We had a lot of yard work to do before I could transplant them. There were bushes to be removed and a sprinkler system to be installed. These projects were not completed until mid-summer. By then, the iris were flourishing. Now I have a beautiful iris bed in a once barren area of the yard.

Sometimes, I find the same to be true in my personal life. I find myself being drawn into circumstances where I have to do something that I would not ordinarily do. I am pulled out of my comfort zone. It is in these times that I have to reach deep within myself and find the true inner strength that dwells in all of us. It is a time when I grow the most. It not usually a comfortable time, but when I make it through, I realize that it was just what I needed to push me to the next level. What about you, are you willing to grow, even in unlikely situations? Are you willing to look for the reason you are where you are? Come ---- stretch and grow with me. Explore who you are. Explore your strengths. Bloom where you are planted. Lets celebrate our growth.

Iris surprise

This is a picture of my latest iris surprise. I say surprise because I didn't know I had one plant this color, now I find I have not one but, three plants like this. The photo does not truly do it justice. It is a deep purplish blue. The lower petals are almost black. I tried several times today to get a better photo, but we have a light breeze blowing. It was hard to catch the flower when the wind was not blowing.

My iris garden is special to me and my husband. Most of the bulbs came from either my Mom or his Mom. Both have passed on, so this is a living memorial to them both. Every year it seems like we discover a new color we didn't know we had.

The flowers have survived many transplantings in the past few years. The ones from my Mom started in Iowa. I got the bulbs right after Mom died. They had been planted in a drainage ditch. The tops had been mown so often that the bulbs had shriveled into hard, dry, withered pieces. I was not even sure they would grow. I was living in Illinois at the time. I planted the bulbs in my front yard. The next spring, they were joined by bulbs from my husband's Mom. We drove to Wisconsin, dug them up, and planted them in the front yard in Illinois. Now we have them at our home in Colorado.

Beauty in function

One of my gardens is right outside my office window. Every morning, after the sprinklers have watered the gardens, this is the site that greets me. The day lily leaves are designed to catch the droplets of water. The water is then either directed down into the center of the plant or it drips off the leaves, giving the roots surrounding the plant a sustained drink of water.

The sun, glints off the water droplets, like shimmering diamonds. Their beauty is almost mesmerizing. It is amazing the beauty that nature incorporates into functionality. The two words seem to almost exclude each other: beauty, function. Nature is teaching us: we can have "both."

So many times in my life I have given up on the creative side of myself in favor of function or need. I am learning that I don't have to choose. I can have both. I can choose to honor and even nuture the creative, beautiful side of myself. That side of me is just as vital as the functional, practical side of myself. If I do not choose to nuture the creative side of myself, then the functional side of me will not have the drive and passion to keep going. I need both, because both are a vital part of what defines who I am. It helps define my abundant life.

What about you? Is there a part of yourself that you have been neglecting or even pretending did not exsist? Take some time out today. Celebrate all of you.