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A Cottage Garden: 2004

November - 11/24: After a cold day or two, blooms on Duchess de Brabant & Mrs. Joseph Schwartz won't open. Got front beds mostly weeded today. Used about 30 red jalepeños from garden (+ tomatillos, etc.) today to make the best salsa ever.

11/20: Old garden roses & "Earth Kind" roses in front are blooming wonderfully. The other evening I counted 16 bushes in bloom. In front, depending on the weather, we can sometimes smell the roses as soon as we walk outside in the morning or open the car door in the afternoon. In back, Chrysler Imperial, Gene Boerner, & Peace doing well. After a cold day or two, blooms on Duchess de Brabant & Mrs. Joseph Schwartz won't open.

Worked in the garden this afternoon - felt good. Pulled out many morning glory vines overgrown from next door neighbor + other weeds. Mexican marigold in full bloom in back garden - wonderful tarragon fragrance to leaves. One of the jalepeño bushes in the back garden is literally heavy with peppers. No mosquitos, so was able to sit in back garden. Would have been nice to have a blanket. Wouldn't that make a nice picture, sitting in the garden chair with a blanket over my knees. Not many birds for the past few weeks. Well, of course there are sparrows & pigeon, but no cardinals, blue jays, or other pretty or songful birds. Gone south, I suppose.

October - 10/29: Garden is back to life. Earlier in the year planted Autumn Damask, a rose dating back to the Roman Empire. Don't think it will bloom this year. Eucalyptus tree in corner of garden by front porch is doing very well - about 6 feet tall now. Basil growing rampantly: one pot more than enough for several cups of pesto - here we go.

A hot summer: Actually every summer in Texas is hot. With age & exhaustion from writing the infectious diseases book, it is taking me awhile to recover from summer's heat. In September the roses are more or less dormant (but leggy & poorly leafed), waiting for the cooler weather of mid/late October to bloom again. My plan this year, when the weather cools, is to dig in Rohde's odorous & excremental fertilizer & cover with leaves. I wonder sometimes what people think when they see me pull up in front of their homes & pick up bags of dead leaves. Thanks, ya'll. This year I've gotten away with doing little in terms of soil prep because so much done the year before. But I don't think I can let it slide again.

Memorial Day 2004: The war is over when the warriors are dead - a quote (from an unknown source) that pretty much tells the story. Except, you know, not even then. War is the ultimate manifestation of the law of karma. There is no better way out of that law or cycle than through Jesus Christ.

Earlier I was looking out my front window at a hollyhock whose seed came from Monet's garden - and listening to a recording of Albert Schweitzer playing Bach fugues on the organ. Good times.

April - 4/30: Walking out the back door there is first the fragrance of honeysuckle, nearing the garden there is nicotiana, next Confederate jasmine, & finally the roses & a little sweet allysum. It's quite a walk & the fragrance at least as lovely as the scented mix out front last year. Photo: Through the gate to the back garden evening of 4/30/04. Felicia in front, nicotiana to the left, and another Felicia mixed with New Dawn in the back. Pink roses are Gene Boerner, bright red is Fragrant Cloud, and pink buds are Tiffany. Tall plants against fence are chaste tree (Vitex).

4/26: I really get it about farmer's almanacs - you never know when you need to know something like when to expect the fireflies (below). Or what time the mockingbirds are singing - around 8 pm. The mockingbird at the end of the street is singing his little heart out most mornings when I walk Buddy. In front tonight, Leslie's pooping mockingbird is on Phyllis's sign & our arch/trellis singing. How do I know he's Leslie's pooping bird? Because I saw him do it. He poops on Leslie's car a lot more than mine - Ha! How is it that she has such a bird? She just does, I guess. American Beauty (1875) blooming first time today - a beautiful glowing crimson, with large, fragrant blooms. New Dawn, front & back starting to bloom. Laura down the street stopped by & said she didn't remember the New Dawn blossoms being as pretty last year. They were not. Differences in roses between the 1st & 2nd years is significant. Most are more floriferous, with bigger blooms & more fragrant this 2nd year vs. the 1st year.

4/22: Tonight, I saw my first fireflies of the year. A good thing to see. Years ago, Leslie & I were visiting our friend Jeff & his wife, Renee in Oklahoma, near Tulsa. It was a warm spring night, humid, very still, and the fireflies came out many more than I had ever seen before just sparkling everywhere; and it got really still, fireflies everywhere & a wind came up, rain off & on & one tornado, then another & another - for hours. We were in a little wood shack, truly, somewhere in the woods & after awhile, went to sleep. Read the next day that in that area, there were many tornados & more than 50 people killed. The garden, front & back, has truly burst into bloom. Today cut the first Climbing America. Felicia has 2-3 blooms; Marie Pavié, Fragrant Cloud, Gene Boerner, Chrysler Imperial, Sweet Surrender blooming. Peace on the alley side is blooming & a couple of days ago the passiflora began its remarkable blooms (signifying the Passion of the Christ). Flowering nicotiana is perfuming the front & back & in front ... roses ... jasmine about to bloom

Everything from here up is most recent 1st; after this it's all month-by-month. Here we are on the 1st day of April. Every day another rose starts blooming. For more than a week we've had rose blooms inside - mostly OGRs floating in a stemmed candy dish from my Grandmother & Mother. So far, Archduke Charles is the most fragrant. If this year is like last year, we'll have flowers in the house for another 8 months. In the evening around 9:30 the garden is fragrant now. I think it's the allysum & roses mostly, maybe a little of what I think is rocket. The old China rose on one porch railing has many blooms. This is the first our Zepherine Drouhin has bloomed. Beautiful & fragrant! Last week I finished revising a chapter on spiritual care in terminal illness & this week, a chapter on cachexia (Greek kakos, meaning bad & hexis, meaning condition). About 10 chapters to go for infectious diseases. Operating at a pretty efficient level, though tending to go days without writing & of course, feeling bad about that. Never before felt so oppressed by writing obligations. Living for the future right now. I figure by the time Redenta's has the half-price sale (in June - I know, thanks to noting it in 2003 - part of the value of this page. Uh-oh, they never did it - just a coupon for 25% off) I'll be through with writing. Got $100 burning a hole in my pocket & headed for Redenta's in June.

Photo: At the SW corner of the house: Old Blush (pink, 2002), Don Juan (red, 2003), Mrs. Jos. Schwartz (white, barely visible, 2003), & Belinda's Dream (buds only, foreground). There is some Texas mountain laural between roses, nicotiana in front, & lemon grass lower right corner of pic. Can see only one leaf of a hollyhock - the seed from Monet's garden. That's Jay's & Mary's porch. Coolest things:

March - Spring is here! Old Blush is blooming, both the climber on the front porch and the older bush at the corner of the house. All the plants made it through the winter in the little "greenhouse" [4'x4'x8'] that I move to the side of the house, cover in plastic (can roll back in warmer weather), & heat with a light bulb. Rosemary has been blooming for > month - lovely, small blue flowers. Texas mountain laural blooming first time - purple, orchid, fragrant. In February I planted some new roses in back: Tropicana & Just Joey; in front I planted The Fairy & Iceberg [pots]. Many of the perennials I planted last year & the year before are starting to emerge. Here come the iris - Happy Springtime! The garden is in pretty good shape. Work on the book last fall & this spring has meant I did not cultivate as I would like. Still, I think the work done over the past several years will carry the garden through this year. I'm really looking forward to cutting way back on writing & related in this coming year. I took off the last four days of spring break & it was good - gardening; cooking outside; made the yearly run to Doan's (bought a desert rose plant & some hosta at a good price); and a trip to Walnut & Jupiter & the best pho shop - living the good life!

January - Hi Kathryn, Just thinking about old garden roses, and what has grown best for me so far here in Dallas: Marie Pavié (pale pink/white), of course. Felicia (pink, small) rambles & flowers very fragrant. Katy Road Pink (guess) not exactly OGR, but same spirit - same for Perle d'Or (peach). Hermosa (crimson/pink) looks like it will be good. Lady Banks (yellow, white) is great once-blooming climber.