needing to look more closely

Isn't it interesting what you can see/find in a garden? I can take a walk out and casually scan the gardens and see the plants, what's in bloom, the occasional butterfly, hummingbird or bee. When I just walk around I only see the outside of the gardens, the obvious shapes, colors, sizes of plants.
(Font problems again, how simply, totally annoying, but I guess I must need more practice correcting the font, or I wouldn't be having to do it each and every sentence I write.)

I find that I don't truly see the gardens while just browsing upright around the yard. In order to truly "see" my gardens, what's actually going on within each garden, I need to get down low, and into each and every one. You have probably noticed that the pants I wear are well worn, and the knees are usually stained with garden dirt. That's because I spend most of my gardening time in the soil on my knees. And because I can't be bothered to wash my gardening clothes each time they get dirty, which would be every time I wear them, sometimes changing them several times a day, back and forth to away from the house clothes, depending on my schedule!!

As my vision has started to decline, I can no longer see clearly after a certain distance, thus the need to get close and dirty! I have always preferred getting a real connection to our great earth, and what better way than getting into it, and carrying away bits and pieces when you arise!

(I start a new paragraph and risk having to change the font again, but AHA, as I look up from the keyboard, I see that the font has remained!! So, do I dare not keep checking it?? Only time will tell how this font issue gets resolved. This blog is so different from using word processing, as it is totally unpredictable what features will work or not. So some days extreme amounts of patience are needed just to get through a short post!)

Another new paragraph, and I am in heaven, the font remains!! SO I love getting down and dirty! - Take it however you want, I put it out there!! LOL!! Anyway, I also prefer to use bare hands while gardening, although there are various circumstances that do require gloves. Like the main one would be the health of my hands!! So I often sacrifice the condition of my skin to be able to get into the soil, gloveless, to be able to just feel that soil and what is going on within. There is something to be said for the feel of the earth, a part of this planet we all live on, in your own two hands. It is the thing that connects us all. It is alive and full of unseen life! And the condition of the soil is testament to how well we are treating our planet.

Wow, I do digress. But, the condition of the soil within our own space is indicative of how well we are maintaining our little piece of this earth. Many are unaware of how important this is. And that is just because they have not been introduced to the concept of caring for all that surrounds us when we step out our door into the wonder of nature.

Many of us have been blessed with the opportunity to really get to have a relationship with nature and all that she provides. We have learned how to recognize and care for that which we have been given. We have been able to learn what we need to know to enhance our surroundings and improve our environment. And we have been given the ability to share our knowledge with others and help them learn how to recognize the importance of honoring nature, the environment, this earth, and in the process improve their own lives and surroundings.

Gardening is not just a hobby, it can become a way of life. For myself I have expanded the definition of the word garden. Sure, it is a plot of land used to plant plants, vegetables, fruits, shrubs and trees. And the verb form, garden, means to work the land, plant and tend to the gardens. For me it is so much more encompassing.

For me, my gardens include more than just the physical gardens on my property. It also includes me, the gardener and all my talents, all my years of experiences that have brought me to this place in time. It is all the connections that are within and without - those outside of my little realm here that intersect with all of you out there. It is the awareness of being present wherever you are, be it at home or away, and staying open to new experiences. It could be noticing a striking cloud formation when looking up in the sky, or something you espy, like the mushrooms in yesterday's post, down on the ground.

It could be a noise you might hear outside your window. This morning, for me, it was an animal noise that was persistent in its repeated sounds. I went out to investigate, as I was concerned it might be a bird in need, but it turned out to be a grey squirrel who evidently wanted me to come outside and say, "Good morning!", which I did!

And so with all of this in mind I share a little journey I took recently with you, this is a little piece of my gardens. This is the view at the front of the garage looking to the left, it is the area between the lower driveway and the first turnoff. There is a central planting of Daylilies and violets, surrounded by whatever has come up over the season. I usually would weed out all but those I planted, a good variety of weeds always comes up. This year I decided to let it all grow up to see what it was. When I noticed the flowers on these particular weeds, I decided to let them stay.



They produced a thick mass of tall sprawling plants covered with spikelike bent tipped, (font again, oh, no!) tight pink clusters. As I found them to be attractive, and definitely in my color palette, I have been enjoying their sight for awhile now. If you notice in the above photo there is a path all the way through this mass of plants.




It took me a few days before I noticed it. What caught my eye was seeing Abby (my dog) come out of the area one day when I arrived home from errands. Now anyone who knows me realizes very quickly that I am not one to allow my dog to roam freely in any of my gardens. I normally would leave her in on warm days so as to not get overheated. But due to her totally unruly behavior and the destruction of many things in my house I had no choice but to start leaving her out more. She has the cool garage to stay in, with her favorite bed, plenty of water and treats, so she is far from being left with none of the creature comforts she is used to. I found it fascinating to discover that she had created her own little oasis right under my nose! On closer look at the area, she had made paths right into the center and under the mass of growing weeds.



You can see the area she has been using for a bed, a cozy little nest just her size, amid all the vegetation.



I had taken pictures of the plant for identification purposes and to investigate the flowers a little closer. This is a Pink Smartweed, or Knotweed, polygonum lapathifolium. This one is the Pale Smartweed. It took a bit of research to identify as there are several different kinds of Smartweeds. Smartweeds are identified by their spikes of numerous flowers and encircling leaf sheaths. It has spike-like clusters of small, bright pink flowers are on sticky-haired stalks. The seeds of these plants are eaten by songbirds and waterfowl. According to my weed guides, from "A Golden Guide, Weeds", by Alexander C. Martin, Golden Press,1987, Smartweeds, members of the Buckwheat family, are liabilities as weeds, but valuable as sources of food for wildlife.
I am right now researching weeds and wildflowers in order to be able to make a knowledgeable decision about the ones I want to include in my gardens. That old question - weed or wildflower? Weeds to some, beautiful, appreciated wildflowers to others.

No, right now I am getting more and more frustrated as I can not change the font back to what I originally set it up as!!

So, I need to get away from this for awhile. Three hours is long enough for this so far.

And so I try again, actually for the second time as the first I hit the space bar and what I wrote got erased. I do not get this system at all. But it is a free blogger site, so I guess I should not complain. This Smartweed has very interesting sprawling nature, with plenty of color due to the spiked flowers all over.



From this photo you can see the paper like sheath on the stem at the joint. This distinguishes the pale Smartweed from other similar Smartweeds.



Some of the flowers even grow out of the stem joints, as can be seen in this photo showing the tender shoots joined together in their shared base.






When you take a closer look at the plant you get to see the detail of the flower clusters. They look like lots of individual seed type pods. To me it had just resembled a lot of grasses, until I took a closer look.


And this is what I saw.... lots of little flowers just starting to pop open. SO these spiked stems were actually full of tiny flower buds all getting ready to bloom. And here are a few starting to pop open! I could have easily missed this whole aspect of the Pale Smartweed (Okay folks, so is 6 tries to get the font to where it is supposed to be enough tries for one day??!!) not laughing out loud at this moment. - and why did the font suddenly change to the right one when I am stuck with the wrong one in prior sentence?!! GO FIGURE!!!
had I not been inclined to take a closer look.




They have grown in quite thickly, creating an over cover to this oasis, as can be seen in the dark shade behind this plant. Now remember this is a hot, full sun spot next to the scorching driveway.



So as I had almost missed this interesting flower display I decided to take a closer look at Abby's oasis. And I proceeded to lose the photo for the second time! Oh, and look, the font and color as well!!
uploaded the wrong picture, try again.....
Got it!!, but not the font............

So, I got down into Abby's oasis and this is what I saw, that I didn't know was even in there. She had cleared out a bedding area, and left plants for shade overhead, with interesting overhanging flowers!
Note to all: I am not changing the font any more after the next try.

Looking up I saw Pokeweed seeds above, the plant itself was hidden and overgrown by all the Smartweed. Here the Pokeweed flowers are almost translucent in the sun above.



While this branch of Pokeweed it forming a curvy form ,



and this one's seeds are alreadybeginning to ripen.



And here I found some Anise Hyssop, with no purple flowers, as have the others in full sun. These are pale with no color as of yet, as well as the next one,



I wonder if they are going to be albinos or just get their color late due to the lack of sun. Interesting, I'll have to keep track of that, need to stop now and make a note for it, note taken.



Also found some tansy growing entwined with the daylilies, these blooming in full yellow glory even with the lack of sunlight.


And that is what I got to see and would have missed if I had not looked more closely!!