Original oil painting by my very talented friend, Karen.I turned the dining room into the war room, spreading out all the garden catalogs from my great, big stack. Time to stop screwing around and figure out a plan of attack. My mission: what to plant in the [coming soon!] Street Garden [aka weedy ditch in front of my house.]
What's holding me back? Public failure! I love to gamble with my gardens but this one faces a busy road for all the world to see. When those flowers drop dead, everyone is gonna know I screwed up.
K's glorious chicken watched over me during the planning session. As I stared at that painting, it dawned on me...The colors that bring K's chicken alive are the same bright, bold colors I want in that garden. Colors so demanding passers by will be transfixed on the success stories and they won't notice the dead junk planted right next to it.
Some folks are bursting with raw, natural talent. Others succeed through perseverance. Karen is a card-carrying member of the talent group. I'm a perseverance sort of gal. I don't perfect things. I dabble.Like knitting. I learned how to knit a scarf and not drop a stitch and I thought I was pretty hot stuff. Then I tried to knit a hat.
Möbius Strip
When you knit a hat you must pay attention to detail and stick to that project to the bitter end. If you don't, all hell breaks loose. That hat grew to magnificent proportions before I realized it had become a never-ending circle of stitches from whence there was no escape.Here's hoping my Street Garden doesn't follow suit.
Chicken poo is very high in nitrogen ~ the richest animal manure in the N-P-K ranking system. (That 15(N)-30(P)-15(K) plant food analysis shown on the side of the box.) Elephant poo is ideal! But, just imagine the size of bags that stuff comes in...
PS: Thanks, Karen. I think Mr. Chicken is happy in his new home.These photos are the wildflowers I've decided upon so far. Globe Mallow, Prince's Plume, Red Penstamon, Blue Geranium, lots and lots of Wild Four O'Clocks. Please send me any ideas you might have. (No sprinkler system so they need to be very xeric.)
5 comments:
I'm not much help because our climates are so different, but I wholeheartedly go with your colour choices, definitely. Just awesome! (and so is the chicken painting)
PS do you know how hard it is to type in an armchair with a bad grey cat leaning against your laptop and purring?
Hi; Jodi - Thanks for the note.
Regarding cats -- Yes I do! I have a bad grey cat who likes to sit on my computer key board. :)
Penstemon Strictus is easy from seed, very blue, and can almost become a weed. Also Penstemon Palmeri is pink,fragrant, xeric and reseeds itself but is not as weedy as strictus is. I have grown both of these and I like them.
Let's hope you know more about plants than you do about chickens. That ones a rooster. :) - Anne
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