GARDEN JOURNAL

Journal Journey Part 1

January 1, 2009 – 10:00 am

I used to have a large perennial and rose garden before gardening on the balcony. I kept a journal each year so I could build and diversify my plant portfolio and frankly, remember where I planted fall and spring bulbs and how large some perennials grew.

My journal, maintained in a large sketch book, is starting to fall apart, so in an attempt to revisit the past (both successes and failures) here’s a look at some of the pages.

In 1989 my inexperience was balanced with an earnest desire to build a garden like Larkwhistle. How hard could it be? I had the book. I was trying to figure out how colour worked, relative size relationships and like all gardeners, build the list of what to move where. I started with a pretty standard assortment of perennials – delphinium, iris, daylily, sedum, bugleweed, coral bells, silver mound, columbine, rock cress and poppies.

Also drafted a nice little herb garden plan for chervil, lemon balm, rosemary, sage, mint, garlic, thyme, parsley and nasturtiums. The mint that I initially grew was a variety from my mom’s garden – a tough, prairie-hardy mint that was invasive if you didn’t pay attention to it. I also had a great patch of strawberries and asparagus that year.

Red ink? Not sure why, possibly too lazy to get up and get a another pen.