Friendship's Garden

In friendship's fragrant garden,
There are flowers of every hue.
Each with its own fair beauty
And its gift of joy for you.

Author Unknown

My friend, Carole, had a landscape challenge at her house – a slope that was proving to be too steep to continue to mow. So, she created a rock garden. It has been in existence for at least three years now, and yesterday she invited some of her gardening friends to come and help her divide the plants (in exchange for a scrumptious dinner). What had started as one Echinacea has parlayed into many, all the spreaders have indeed spread, and we were able to see for ourselves how her garden had grown.

When you’re let loose in someone’s garden and told that you can “have at it,” you find yourself loving everything in situ and not wanting to destroy the wonderful effect. You snatch at the edges of plants…but hesitate to remove them completely. But you certainly look a lot closer at things!
Along with peach baskets full of gloves, trowels, and empty pots, Carole had given us a paper with ten “challenges” on it. She asked things like, “How many annuals do you find?” and “Name the tallest weed – just before you pull it.” (Believe me, her place is the closest I’ve seen to a weedless wonderland!) The answers to her prompts allowed us to carry the whole garden experience inside and talk about it after the sun went down. The closest anyone could come to having right answers netted them a seed packet, and everyone ended up being a winner as the discussion continued. …Felder Rushing and Steve Bender have written about “Passalong Plants,” but this last evening turned into a whole passalong garden! What fun!

Carole’s garden will continue to prosper and increase, and it became a glorious excuse to enjoy other gardeners too. And today we will all plant and remember and look forward to more good times to be.