There's a time
in the spring when other people are mowing and trying to make things neat, I
kind of let things go. Very much so. Honesty grew up in the dirt driveway in
different colors. There was lady's mantle. They would grow up and be all
tangled together with some of the monkshood and it was so beautiful, to me. You
had to be the kind of person who likes to allow plants growing, not all
regimented in neat little rows.
As far as the
plants go, I had seeds from everywhere. I bought some. I borrowed them from
other people. They just showed up. The monkshood and wolfsbane I planted behind
the house in my little cottage. It had whatever kind of weird plants I could
find to put in it.
I owned a little house on the side that was my house
absolutely, that I didn't share with my parents. There are some quirks I wanted
to try. I did have poisonous plants in it.
Thorn apple. Thorny seed pods. I had one of those growing there. They're very
sturdy plants. I just wanted to have a few dangerous plants. I wasn't going to
try to kill anybody. They're pretty sometimes.
Thorn apple has
a blossom like a morning glory. I saw some in Gloucester on a traffic Island. I wasn't going to do anything bad with them. They're pretty
plants, foxglove and monkshood. My sister comes and looks at it and says,
"What is this, the Devil's Garden?" She's a botanist.
In the front of the house I had what I called the Magic Kitty Garden. It had a little fenced-in yard. There was a bird feeder. There was a little place to drink. I used to call that the Buzzy Wilson Memorial Drinking Hole. When my cat Buzzy was killed by coyotes, that made me very mad, so this was a place for them to drink. It had wind chimes hanging over it.
In the front of the house I had what I called the Magic Kitty Garden. It had a little fenced-in yard. There was a bird feeder. There was a little place to drink. I used to call that the Buzzy Wilson Memorial Drinking Hole. When my cat Buzzy was killed by coyotes, that made me very mad, so this was a place for them to drink. It had wind chimes hanging over it.
Why don't I put that old thing that's been laying around the
yard in there and plant stuff around it?
That was a great place for plants. I had a partly enclosed
garden to make it safer for the cats because the dogs were constantly going by.
The cats like catnip and they like
certain kinds of grass. I planted catnip. I mostly kept that in the house in
pots. Once I bought seeds of cat grass at the pet store. They liked it. Wide
blades of green grass, not very fancy looking. They eat it. They roll in the
catnip, but I don't think they roll in the cat grass.
People sometimes plant with themes. My gardens were always
eccentric. I planted what I wanted where I wanted it. When I wanted. It didn't
always pass approval with people who like their plants all in a row. I was
careful. If the weeds weren't bad looking I'd leave 'em. Some of them aren't
that bad. Wild flowers like my wild cats. Sometimes there's something wild that
should be left alone.
When I learned how poisonous monkshood is I dug it out of my flower bed.
ReplyDeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteFascinating reading. Just read 4 & 5, & hoping to find 1-3. This binds me to the history of my neighborhood, sorta condenses time. Thank you, Mattin.
ReplyDelete