Stress Relief

I finally got around to planting my latest garden additions today. I don’t remember the name of the red-leafed plant but fortunately the locally-owned garden center had a sign that said to plant it in the shade—otherwise, I would have put it on the sunnier side and wondered why it didn’t do well. This garden center has begun posting full-color printed signs with name and care instructions for various plants. Not only are they helpful but they look neat (in both senses of the word☺) And the good old cobalt blue lobelia can do reasonably well in part shade or mostly sunny. I feel as though my garden isn’t complete without it. The intensely deep blue flowers cascade over the edges of pots until it gets really hot and then again in the fall. Deadheading the tiny flowers is tedious but when it gets overwhelming you can give them a full haircut. However, once you cut them back, depending upon how hot it is and how far back you cut them, they may or may not come back until fall. I had to buy a six-pack of lobelias in order to get a couple—I wish that retailers would make 2-packs or even 3-packs. The slightly larger individual plants that sell for almost as much as six of them isn’t all that helpful either since they’re harder to fit into small spaces in container gardens. It was a beautiful, sunny morning to do my planting. While I was at it I added some organic nasturtium seeds to my salad pots and hyacinth bean vine seeds (not edible) to a hanging basket. We’ve had so much stress, and activity lately, it felt so good to be outdoors working in the garden then sitting in it, enjoying the fruit of my labor.

It Worked!

I read or heard somewhere that if you plant the root end of a green onion, it would grow. I’m delighted to find that something I would normally throw away can grow food—even in a small garden (No I don’t compost, though I’ve read about putting earthworms in a plastic sweater box with holes drilled in it, to put under the kitchen sink. Nope, I’m not bringing worms into our home)! It's growing edible green leaves but I don't know if the white part below is growing. I'll likely keep cutting off the greens for cooking and let the plant stay to produce more.

It seems our cold snap is over; the common saying according to the weatherman is that you can’t plant anything until after tax day. Well hallelujah, today is our extended tax day and I’m glad to be done with it; now I have one more reason! Soon, I’ll be planting the outdoor garden in earnest. Stay tuned.

It’s Good to be Planting Again

When my orange Asiatic lilies stopped blooming, even quit putting out green shoots (I was ever hopeful), I knew I had just the pot for a hydrangea. Unfortunately, my attempts at growing a plant from stem cuttings didn’t work—at all, so I determined that I would have to buy one. As I searched the garden centers this spring, I found huge, expensive ones—even topiaries. I don’t need all that, nor do I want to pay for all that. Then I saw a good deal on this small-potted one in the mid-range of colors—a mix of pink and blue and knew I couldn’t pass it up.


While its clay pot is too big for it now, it will quickly grow into it (Lord willing). Meanwhile I’ve added a Cherry Super Bells plant to keep it company. The pink petunia-like flowers (it turns out that they only resemble petunias) with yellow stars are new in our garden centers this year. It will add some pizzazz.

Though my current tastes in color and garden style are more tropical, I still have a fondness for English garden plants but I do have to make an effort to keep my combinations from being too “sweet”. There’s nothing at all wrong with soft colors; I just have to have bright color! I’ll be adding a bit of Creeping Jenny in a bit later and maybe something tall and spiky.

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Mud Pies

Though my husband is a non-gardener he tells me that he really enjoys reading this blog each day, “It’s refreshing.” He does say that he grew things like “giant” corn stalks when he was young.

Today he reenters the gardening world with a creative gift from family, a tiny greenhouse of miniature flower pots to be planted with “fragrant herb” seeds.


Much like the set-up for Oskar’s growth, this kit has soil “pellets” that spring to life with the addition of lukewarm water. The little “soil muffins” grow and grow to be twice the size of the pots! There’s even soil left over. Mud pies. My husband declares it, “messy fun.”


Next come the nearly microscopic seeds, mint, marjoram and the tiniest ones yet—chamomile pressed into the fork—fluffed soil.


And finally, the clear plastic greenhouse gets closed up to hold in the moisture that helps seeds germinate; then it greets the world from a sunny window sill. The sun is burning off the frost outdoors and warms us indoors—inside and out.

100th Post!

I began this blog last July as a fun summer project to share my balcony garden with you. One hundred posts later (didn’t know I could!), it’s become much more. It has helped discipline me in my writing and I’ve taken hundred’s of photos of many aspects of my garden. I’ve been happily stretched.

One friend is amazed that I can have such diversity in such a small garden. Plants change as they grow—that’s part of what I like about gardening. Several—even non-gardeners, have said that they find refreshment and stress-relief as they read my posts each day. I’m pleased. That's why I share my garden.

As I’ve shared my successes and not-so-successful gardening experiments with you, people from many parts of the world have looked in. Gardening is, for the most part, universal. Like it or not, small gardens will likely become the norm as cities and populations throughout the world grow out—and up. One doesn’t have to own acreage to grow a beautiful garden.


I’ve been amazed at the variety of natural kingdom visitors making their way to my “tree house” garden, some enjoyable like this tiny frog, and others such as the leaf-chomping giant grasshoppers, dreaded.

While I’ve dedicated this blog to God, the original Artist and Gardener,Creator of everything, I wasn’t interested in making it into a “daily devotional”. If I saw a parable then good, I’d share it with you but didn’t contrive everything to fit a devotional template. I have however, ended up sharing some of the deep things the Lord is working in me, along with the joys of his creation.

http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/09/same-song-second-verse.html
http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/09/garden-watered-by-god.html
http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-bloom-again.html


I’ve also shared some nuts and bolts of gardening how-to’s from my years of gardening experience, working in flower/plant shops and reading garden books—my first book club purchases as a child.


Of course, as an artist, color is a really big deal for me and
always influences my garden as well as my posts.



I hope you’ll "visit" with me in my garden for many more “sunrises.” I’d love to get your feedback in comments or e-mails (leafyjournal@yahoo.com). There’s even a place at the end of each post to click on “reactions” to the post and a place to click for sharing the post on facebook, twitter or through e-mail—bring your friends, the more the merrier. Thanks for stopping by!

To Grow Again

My “revived” avocado has sprouted two new sets of shiny bronzed leaves to replace the spindly top I pruned a month or so ago. Making the cut was a little scary but the plant will be bushier and more vigorous. It won’t reach as great a height but in a small garden that’s a plus.

Yesterday evening the full moon rose over a row of tables crammed with home-cooked foods as my husband and I and dozens of her other friends filled my friend B’s huge backyard. It was good to get out in the country in such beautiful weather. We tree-top dwellers are often limited to parks in order to spend much time with our feet in creation, so it’s especially nice when someone shares their yard. Thanks B!

I had some great art conversations, which sometimes turned to the subject of God’s speaking through his creation—the complexities, variety and sheer beauty of the things he has made. That’s why I’m so drawn to spending time outdoors and in my garden, why I’m refreshed there. God isn’t a part of creation but is revealed through it.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…” Romans 1:20

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Last week my friend when my friend L. came to visit she wanted to see the garden since she had enjoyed reading this blog. She wondered if my readers knew just how small my garden is. So in case you are a new reader—welcome, and didn’t see my earlier posts, my outdoor garden is on an apartment balcony that is slightly over eleven feet long and four and a half feet deep. It’s a bit smaller than the last place we lived but it’s amazing how much of God’s plant and “animal” creation can fit into it.

My main reason for blogging about my garden is the pleasure of sharing it with you. In addition to being a gardener, I’m a visual artist, writer and budding photographer. This blog makes a great place to put my various skills together. However, I can’t help but championing container gardens, even “tree house” (2nd story) gardens like mine. A garden doesn’t have to be large to be a great enjoyment. The photo is from a previous autumn. I’m amazed to see how much bigger certain varieties have grown this year—must be the fertilizer.

Living in a small space—especially if it’s rented, is so much against the way most Americans think. Though one third of all housing units are rentals, most think that unless you “own your own home”, you’re pretty much a failure. The thing is, it’s impossible to buy a home—homes are made. The idea of buying a home or being a “homeowner” is simply a realty marketing ploy; we get their ads in the mail all the time promising a “real home” for less than rent. (They don’t mention the taxes, the homeowners’ association assessments, the upkeep and repairs.) No, how you pay for a living space is not what makes it a home but a sense of welcome and refuge, a degree of comfort, good smells and sounds are some of the ingredients in making a home. These are priceless.

An Automatic Choice

I always look for Victoria Blue Salvia for my garden. Some years I don’t have to buy it since it is a biennial and returns the next season. Its small spiked purple flowers consistently bloom once it gets started. Though it’s called “blue”, there are very few truly blue flowers in nature.

This year, I planted the Victoria Blue’s in several pots—I got stuck once again with buying a whole pack (of 6) that I didn’t need. (The two big home improvement stores sold only 9-packs and large single pots. I don’t want or need that many. I’d rather buy one or two smaller plants that will grow into their places. With the return to downtown/center city living and the increase in multi-family communities, small gardens are the “in thing”—garden centers take note.) Location mattered. The ones in my long Italian terra cotta pots languish while the ones in the larger, deeper pot are flourishing to the point of overcoming their neighbors.


While the salvias’ arching lean is artistic, they were mashing and shading the heliotrope next to them. This heliotrope (the first one I bought) had enough trouble getting started, having severely dehydrated while riding home from the farmer’s market in the heat of the back window. Over the weekend I got a green plastic-coated heavy wire stake with a partial ring to prop up the Victoria Blue. (You can barely see it in the lower left of the picture) Though it now has an unnatural lean away from the sun, it will straighten its course when the sun returns.

Whenever that will be… We’re forecast to have heavy rain all week from Tropical Storm/Depression Lee. The humidity is bathtub high; the plants love humidity and they’ve got it. I’m not as big a fan though the birds don’t seem to mind. I could barely see the brown birds down the electric line loudly chirping their “call and response” but they looked like thrashers. A distant response answered their call.