June 21, 2003
just because it makes me happy


Now, I bring you lots of pictures of the flowers I am growing this summer. I do this for no real reason except that it makes me happy to share them with you.

I ran across this wonderful article in The Morning News the other day that perfectly captured why I love to garden. It can be a terrible day at the office. People can curse your name. People can say terrible things about your mother. You can seriously contemplate jumping out of the 10th-floor window of your office. But when you come home at the end of the day and spend a few minutes puttering around in the garden, those bad feelings melt away.

	These zinnias are showboaters. They are such sturdy, cheerful flowers—little missionaries of charity. They make great cut flowers, so I tend to bring them into the office frequently. The walk from my parking deck to my office is four or five city blocks, so in the morning, when I am walking down the sidewalk on the way to the office, toting my fresh-cut zinnias, I am a miniature homecoming queen.

	When we planted these coreopsis daisies out by the mailbox at the beginning of spring, they were desparate, paltry, a mere 3" high. Now they are going nuts, spilling out over the curb. They also cut well.

	Coneflower. This angle doesn't show you how determined these crazy little flowers are. This bloom almost came up to my waist.

	This is another little sedum-y groundcover called John Creech. The leaves are waxy and they make noise when you rub them together. They grow in a sturdy clover vine pattern. There is something cute and silly and cartoon-y to me about this plant. I think this is probably the groundcover that Willy Wonka used in the Chocolate Factory.

	Anna Belle hydrangea. This is a big snowy showy puffball of flowers. Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers, one of the things I love about the South.

	Oakleaf hydrangeas, past their peak. But even in the midst of their decay, I think they are beautiful.

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Here's a little secret nobody ever tells you about gardening: it's easy as hell. Seriously. You do not have to get all Victory Garden in order to enjoy a very pleasing relationship with the botanical world. You also do not have to have a big yard. All you need, really, is a bit of dirt, and a couple of pots, and a few flowers that you bought at the nursery or got from a friend, and a bit of sunlight.

The thing is, plants want to grow. It takes so little encouragement from you for them to put on a wonderful show for you.

As that Morning News article suggests, it's hard to call it a bad day when you spend at least a few minutes making the world slightly more beautiful. Watching as floating butterflies and big fat bees drink to their fill in your garden will help remind you of the many small but tangible ways in which just one person can bless the world.