Changing Gardens

Cardoon in our garden

The big horse-shoe garden down by the greenhouses, where you will find me hanging out most of the spring and summer, changes everyday. No one else notices these changes, but like the mother of a young child, I notice every change, everyday. Buds appear on plants, flowers open, plants get taller and fill out. The mix of annuals, perennials, and herbs make the changes both more dramatic and, perhaps, harder to recognize. This year, I took a lot more pictures of the garden determined to share them with you, my garden blog readers.  Now I wonder why so many of those pictures  look the same.  They seemed so different to me at the time! Every day, there's an important change in a garden's color and texture as its flowers open, mature, and go to seed, but its as subtle as if its nothing more than the changing light in the day. Even my cardoon, which has only gotten bigger and is unfazed by the frosts of October and November, is never the same. All the plants change everyday, or so it appears to me. How important could all this be, me seeing changes no one else would notice? In that way, a well loved garden is like a beloved child: we see them changing everyday; it is our joy as gardeners (and parents) to watch these small changes that make up the life of our gardens and families. And rejoice at every single one every day, even if only for ourselves. Because, as we all know both gardens and children can be a challenge (and I mean that in a good way).