On one hand, the garden is a vast artist’s canvas to express oneself, make a unique statement, create beauty and bounty. On the other, it’s a big laboratory to try out ideas, experiment and observe, learn from failures and successes. In the end, we understand the world and ourselves better. I revel in it all.

In combining the science and art of gardening, I’m in my element. As scientist and artist, the garden provides the perfect nexus to bring it all together.

As I’d written in earlier posts, I will be making seed bombs and testing them out this season. Previous failures in growing poppies by sprinkling them around in late March have failed. Hence the decision to trial seed bombs. Easy enough to do and, if it works, I’d have come up with a good solution. In my mind’s artistic eye, I see a melange of poppies dancing in the meadow like ballerinas. We shall see how things turn out.

Earlier this year, I made an impulse purchase of a bag of Liatris bulbs. Immediately, I envisioned the garden in mid-summer lit up in mauvish-pink candles. I’ve yet to get most of the bulbs in the ground but this past weekend, as I potted up pansies, I buried some of the liatris in the same pots My thinking is that the liatris will come up in time and, once the pansies are done, they will be replaced with something more complementary to the poker shaped flowers of the liatris.

I’m anticipating the arrival of dahlia tubers. Having never grown them before, I’m eager to get started. Some will go in the bed across from the vertical garden and others into pots. The idea of pots is two-fold. I ordered more tubers than the aforementioned bed can handle and also, the pots can be moved around anywhere a splash of color is needed.

The pears-in-a-bottle experiment from 2020 was a success so I’m planning to repeat that this year. Maybe with apples too.

Experiments excite me so I’m very impatient to get going. Naturally, I want everything to succeed but no matter the outcome, I’d have learned from each one. Along with the garden, the gardener grows too.

Note: I subscribe to a Poppy CSA from @bearCreekFresh. The first weekly delivery of about a dozen stems arrived last Thursday. Poppies are ethereal. Their organic transformation from bud to flower is a performance art I cannot get enough of. Every stage of the plant, from bud to seedpod is beautiful to behold. #buylocal

Pear In A Bottle 2020

My watercolor of Liatris

(c) 2022 Shobha Vanchiswar

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