Pruning the Potager............again and again and again


And may I ever so meekly ask a favor of you, sweet Reader?  If you like my little blog, would you please forward to someone else who might enjoy it.... or who just needs a little cheering up.....or who might want to know you're thinking of them?  Sometimes I feel like I'm preachin' to an empty church.  Thank you ever so much,  Linda.

It occurs to me as I pass through these molten days of summer that I am really missing spring.  But not in the ways you might think.  The cool temperatures, like the tulips and roses, had their season and the season is done.  I may not like it, but I accept it in an existential kind of way.

But interestingly, especially as I get older, I miss the definition and crispness of spring. You know what I mean, don't you? The tidy, tight little mounds of foliage.  The negative space between plants with the dark, damp earth exposed and vulnerable and accepting. The skeletal outline of the Boston Ivy as it
climbs the wall with its pale and tender leaves.  The gentle, unknowing innocence and neatness of the garden..........that is what I am nostalgic for.  Things are looking droopy and long-in-the-tooth (kind of like us) and need some boundaries, some discipline, some tending to......a little TLC.

                                                      It is time to prune the boxwood.


Now pruning the boxwood in my potager is kind of like painting the Golden Gate Bridge.  As soon as it's done, I need to start over again.  That's what I get for growing the faster growing, but less expensive 'Wintergreen' boxwood instead of a lazier variety.  Just one more example in my life where I chose Door #1, Instant Gratification, over a less laborious and more practical Door #2.

Nevertheless, I love the color and shading and glossiness of it, especially after it's freshly clipped.

The brilliance of my little potager edged in boxwood, is that it is divided into sections, or quadrants as I think of them.........with a circle in the middle.  Consequently, when I set out to tackle the job, I can mentally and physically divide it into manageable parts.  Day 1: Morning= Quadrant 1; Afternoon= Quadrant 2 and so on.  That way I can do other things in between, giving my achin' back a rest, and dodging the heat and sun.  Very formulaic, very methodical, very smart.........thank you very much.


See the difference?  See how it gives me the orderliness and tidiness
(okay, CONTROL), I crave?

Oh, and Instant Gratification, Door #1.





Much better, don't you think?

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