Flâneur Gardening

>Yesterday morning I spotted another harbinger of spring in the garden; the eranthis/winter aconites are pushing up through the ground in The Woodland beneath the brown leaves that cover every square inch. I gently replaced the leaves, and when they’re ready the flowers will surely push the leaves aside. For now, I’m happy just knowing they are down there under their comfy brown blanket of leaves.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winterling_Ende_Februar_2009.JPG

Sure, so the above isn’t my own picture, since currently our eranthis are nothing but a bunch of pale, curled-up seedlings hidden under the leaves, but eventually they will be green and yellow and wonderfully cheerful in their style-defying brashness. I truly find these to be inelegant flowers; too brazen and cartoon-like to even look like real plants, but at the same time I can’t help loving them. I can never look at them without thinking they look like little children dressed up as flowers for a school play, whereas the rhododendrons later in the year are a couple of stately women – slightly past their prime – dressed up for a royal ball.

Anyway, beside spring enthusiasm this entry was really supposed to be about lists. I’ve made a list of all the plants and all the flowerbeds, trying to find out which plants would suit each bed or area. It’s so reaffirming to see that there are actually so many plants that will be ready to be moved into a permanent setting later this spring (when the beds have been created), and I can almost see the borders, beds and patches for me, the blending and contrasting of colours and textures as well as the changes through the year. In my mind’s eye our garden is already beautiful and ready, simply because I can see what can be done.

Of course the list is not complete. I’ve marked every item on the list according to whether the plant exists in the garden already, whether we have seeds to grow them ourselves, whether they need to be moved. And I’m considering adding a new category: “Seeds/plants need to be purchased/pilfered”, with “pilfering” referring to “politely asking for cuttings, spare plants or seeds from anybody who has anything to spare”. Don’t worry; as most readers of this blog is abroad I’m not asking you for anything, except of course that inspiration and examples of plants that will look great/produce plenty of crops and thrive in a Northern climate.

Mind you, all “Seeds/plants need to be purchased/pilfered” will probably also be entered on a separate wish list so I have some sort of overview of what we would like to get for the garden. (And when I write “we” I mean “I”… The husband has so far mainly requested lushness, flowers and VOLUME, and I like that. I can work with that.)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lupine_R01.jpg

Okay, so that’s not my picture either.

Still, just making the list of what’s there and realising how many of my favourite flowers and plants will be in our garden even from this coming summer makes me so happy. Oh, the joy of anticipation! And the joy of discovering that some of the wish list plants – like the eranthis – are already there, and right where they need to be.