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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Gardeners: Seers of the future.


"Seer"- a person with unusual powers of foresight; - one who divines the future.

Gardening is a leap of faith; optimism personified; visionary belief that planting, tending and nurturing will produce concrete results. Indefatigable Gardener Egos are prepared to accept that  lack of success does not mean surrender. There will always be next year.

The strange, finger-like leaves unfurling relentlessly from the shadows are this year's peonies-to-be. Part of my pleasure in gardening is that I see the images of the future; beautiful flowers to come. In my minds eye I leap from this to fragrant, pristine white flowers tinged with rose.

I tried and failed for three years to grow peonies. Then I had plants with leaves only. The blooms did not reappear the following year.  Now I have consistent success, using what I learned from each disappointment and counting on each previous failure to multiply my satisfaction.

17 comments:

  1. Ah, but we gardeners know that something will happen at some time. It is in the nature of the beast.
    I love feeling new shoots barely breaking the soil, then hypnotizing them into raising themselves above the soil and watching them grow, inch by tiny inch, until they stand in all their glory and produce wonderful flowers, edible fruits and crunchy vegetables. Even the hated weeds are a sign of life.

    Peonies always take several years to establish themselves in my experience.

    Happy gardening.

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  2. That's how I live my live, learn from my mistakes and things continue to get better, thrive if you will. Smile. I have tried to garden and had some small success. I planted some sweet basil seeds a few weeks ago in a pot in the house and have some lovely plants growing, soon to be enhancing my cooking. So that is a good thing. Your peonies have shiny hardy leaves. I have some things to learn from you about gardening.

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  3. May your thumbs grow greener and greener ...

    Just wanted to pass on, spent a fair part of this afternoon with an ersatz frenchwoman, and her authentic french husband, and his sister and brother, in Paris at a very fine photo exhibit, then to a café after for crepes and a drink... I think it would be fair to say a good time was had by all... She is lovely ! And all are doing well...
    Cheers...

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  4. Friko, I thought of you when I wrote this.

    TechnoBabe, Yep! Life lessons and good ones. Basil is such a sign of summer. The shiny leaves are those of violets and primroses, all wet from today's rain. They keep my pots garnished with brightness whilst the main act gathers itself for a later performance.

    Owen, Food, water and sunshine make just about anything grow. I'm glad you now know our mutual friends in person.

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  5. It's certainly trial and error - this is our second year with a vegetable patch, last year yielded a mixture of failure and successes - this year we are hoping to shift the ratio in favour of the latter.

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  6. Peonies are the one thing I could grow, and in my neglect, they flourished. They seem remarkably resistant to drought and poor soil - it's only a pity they don't last all summer.

    You and Friko, between the two of you, might just get me into gardening. Lovely little post.

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  7. Gardening. Almost guaranteed to grow your optimism.

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  8. I'm a non-gardener (don't shoot me) but this is a good approach to life in general. This is how I treat anything I write ... if it doesn't work, don't bin it in despair, but come back and see if anything will grow from it another time.

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  9. we've tried to get tomatoes a couple of times, but the slugs get them all. Potatoes are reasonably easy, but to be honest i just dont have the patience that you need to be a gardener - hope you have better look going forward

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  10. Steve, At least you now have a fence so you won't receive any "help" from neighbors' dog.

    Deborah, much of my gardening is done in pots. I dragged the peonies from place to place until I got the correct sun/shade ratio to make them happy. Yesterday morning I took my pot of Bearded Iris for a walk up to the front of the house. One of my challenges is avoiding tipping the dolly and the pot into the swimming pool as we cross over the bumpy rocks of the waterfall.

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  11. Martin, exactly.

    Fran, gardening is not compulsory but it surely parallels many aspects of life.

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  12. Pixie,I may horrify every "green" friend I have. I should own shares in "Snail Death" (great product name, don't you think). Strangely, since we moved a few miles south and up a hill we have virtually no slugs and snails. Is it drier? Are there more snail-eating bird species? No clue, but even in this rainy, rainy spring, I have not been besieged by the slimy nibblers.

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  13. My peonies probably need thinning. I'm not sure, but they come in a really thick patch. But I am not the gardener. My Dad was and the peonies are his masterwork from years ago. They are so gorgeous when they bloom.

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  14. Jean, Peonies have taken on a magical identity for me. When the sun is hot and a beautiful flower is visibly dripping amber drops of perfume I am transported to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Anoint my eyelids and let my dreams transport me!

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  15. Peonies are my favorite flower. I have seen them down here in only one place. Two rows of thick lush bushes.

    I tried for years... maybe there is something that will thrive in this heat but I haven't found it yet.

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  16. Came to you via Friko. I love paeonies (looks like pretentious spelling but have always done it like that so hope you will forgive me). I am a gardener to the soles of my feet. Makes you look forward, anchors you to the time and place, makes you live in the moment.

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  17. elizabethm, one who wrote such redundancy into the title of her post would never criticize another blogger's spelling. I just popped by on both your past and present blogs. Good hearty writing and good hearty living. Hats off to you.

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