I sometimes wish I could hold my garden still for a while; like an object, keep it in the moment – and as I write, this June weekend is one of those times.
The children’s jingle (misquoted) of the teddy bear’s picnic goes through my head … ‘for every flower that ever there was, is flowering now and only because …’ (not, as the children’s rhyme goes on to say ‘today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic’) but ‘today’s a day, like ev-er-y day, it keeps on jolly-well pouring’.
Rain rain rain is what we have all had and most definitely not sun sun sun. To me, it is surprising that it is rain, much more than the sun that brings plants forward into bloom – water without much warmth. Am I the last person to realise this?
I have never seen the garden so full of flowers – flowers that should be flowering next month (like lilies) flowering now with plants (like peonies) which should be nearly over. Then there are hydrangea, penstemon and salvia which should be flowering in two months time, not now with the thalictrum and deutzia, nepeta and delphiniums, typical of early June. The garden is indeed in full bloom – and I rather fear for July and August. But we shall see.
But a garden is its own master; as someone told me recently, gardening is a process, not an object so I must not try to cling to what is now.
