The Quiet Garden

Coxcomb

The garden is quiet now. No bees or butterflies at work. The finches have eaten all the echinacea seeds from the seed heads. The frosts have made the gardens droop and the monochromatic colors are shadows of what they were last week...but it makes me smile because it's time to clean up and plan next years garden.

Now, because we use perennials and annuals every year the garden can be different. This year for summer and fall the front of one of the gardens was purple, blue, yellow and orange. I liked it a lot and it gave me pleasure everyday to look at it. It's funny: I actually had meant to put a coxcomb in that area that was a sunset orange color called Temple Bells, but I misunderstood George when he told me where they were in the greenhouse and put in HUGE red-velvet looking coxcombs instead. That was not in my orange/purple plan at all. When I could tell which way the wind was blowing concerning their color it was too late to pull them out so they stayed and, surprise, everyone loved them. I would try to explain the error but no one seemed to care much and took lots of pictures anyway. The other side of the garden got the temple bells a few weeks later when I figured out the color thing, and somehow that just didn't work as well. Actually, I think it was the time difference. But what I thought of as a big mistake (big RED coxcombs), everyone else thought was genius.  Sometimes good things in a garden just happen despite my best efforts.

Getting back to next year... I went into a friend's art gallery and she had a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the checkout table. I immediately thought, "That is what I want to do in the garden next year." It was all different shades of reds and oranges with touches of chartreuse thrown in. Very rich colors, very beautiful for a garden.

I will happily do my clean-up chores thinking of next year and my new attempt at a planned color garden:   pinks, oranges, double apricot, white, and deep red. Can't wait. Until next year.