The Grateful Deadheader

Thursday's blog is actually my blog within my blog:  for years I have toyed with the idea of telling of my experiences in the garden and came up with this amusing title.  Now that I am blogging regularly I knew I had to set aside a day each week and this is it. 
For those who don't know me, I am a passionate person:  I am passionate about my marriage, my career, my faith and my country.  Until a few years ago I did not realize another passion in my life, that being perennial gardening.

My husband, James is a landscape designer; that's actually how we met some 18 years ago.  He designed and installed the landscaping at a previous home... in my "former life."  (I am not a believer in reincarnation but I love using that term instead of "previous marriage" just to watch people's facial expressions.)   At that time he spoke of butterflies and hummingbirds and a plan to implement an area to attract them into the design:  I was thrilled, my ex-spouse, not so much.  After years of gentle nudging my garden was planted.  I looked forward to the morning trip outside with the dogs and catching a glimpse of these wonderful little creatures. 
 

Fast forward 13 years and I've now married that wonderful man who first made me see landscaping as more than decoration.  I have come to be involved in my yard in a way I never thought I wanted to be but now know I need.  Each plant, each flower receives some degree of my attention on a regular basis and I am immediately rewarded for my efforts. 

I've often said nothing happens quickly in real estate: even if I sell your house before I've planted the sign in the yard (I'd REALLY like to test this statement!) we will not complete the transaction for weeks.  I can look at an overgrown flower bed in need of attention and after weeding and deadheading I will see an immediate result.  And the removal of those spent blooms (aka deadheading)  will payoff in short order with a resurgence of blooms.  Whereas years ago I thought a flower bloomed once, I now know that, dependent upon the amount of time I put into caring for that plant I may be repaid with prolific blooms throughout the growing season. 

I spend, on average, two hours in our gardens each week.  I rarely go a full day without tending to a plant somewhere in the yard, especially my butterfly bushes.  James removed old tired shrubbery at the dining room windows and replaced them with Buddleia davidii bushes.  (We're just gonna get that out of the way:  that's the only scientific name I have committed to memory so you need not fear I'll be throwing anymore of those around, LOL.)   When they are in bloom we are treated to visits from these winged marvels throughout our dinners, and occasionally even hummingbirds collect nectar from the flowers.

I believe there is another side to gardening which has to do with control:  I can prune a shrub, I can deadhead a bush, and I am controlling its destiny as such.  When a plant struggles in one corner of the garden I can recognize its need for more light and relocate it to the center of a bed, and almost overnight watch it transform.  Ah, if only more of life were that way, I muse; if whenever I knew how to make a difference I could.  If only I could receive the same return on an investment of time as I do in countless hours of gazing at these beautiful surrounding.  If only...and then I stop, grateful for all this deadheader has already been gifted.