Fall at Lowell Estates

Summer of 2017 is winding down, and much faster than I'd like. The fact that autumn is my favorite season by far is small consolation for the way time is passing so quickly. My previous post was about getting back into the gardening game, and now that the season is nearly over I can give a status report. Short version? There was some good and some bad. Let's get the bad out of the way. Someone in my neighborhood mowed the vacant lot next to my house (which doesn't belong to me). They also decided to mow my yard, which didn't really need it but I'm sure they thought they were doing me a solid. Unfortunately they were a bit heavy handed with the mowing, and I lost three plants to the whirling blades. A fourth is doing ok, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't survive the winter. I was upset at first. I've gotten more attached to those little plants than I realized, and the loss was disappointing. But I quickly found the silver lining - here was an opportunity to correct some of the mistakes I'd made when planting. As is often the case, life had other plans. Things just got really busy really quickly, and I didn't have the time or energy to replace the destroyed plants. Plus, I was overthinking it and as soon as I thought I had a plan in place, a new plan came along to replace it. And that's how the summer passed. Today was a beautiful late summer day, and with Mother Nature wreaking havoc down south I figured it would be a crime if I didn't make the most of my good fortune. So today became garden day. I stood in front of the garden for a while, studying it and deciding what sort of plant I wanted to go where. Then it was off to Urban Roots, and of course they had beautiful plants but not in the size or shape I had planned in my head. So I just got a couple of plants that looked nice. One is a chocolate snakeroot, which I've had in the past and loved. Then I went to Home Depot because as much as I love supporting local businesses (especially Urban Roots which takes the lion's share of the credit for turning my neighborhood around) I can't fight with the prices at Home Depot. Once all of the new plants were in, I stood there, again, looking and studying. There's no getting around it. My little garden is a hot mess. I like each plant well enough on its own but as a whole, there's no rhyme or reason. But, I'm not giving up just yet. I think when the plants come back next year, healthy and strong, everything will look a lot better, and I'll be able to fill in the gaps with some small foliage plants. I'm not used to thinking long term over short term flash, so this is all a very difficult lesson for me.