THE POWER OF THE PLANT

Two years ago, on a budget I needed to fill a large space under my front window. I wasn't exactly sure of the direction I wanted to go so for the time being I purchased three large pluming grasses and placed them in the bare spot. The grasses are beautiful, giving a flowing grace in contrast to the other more rigid plants they surround. However, come winter I find myself displeased with the empty space once the grasses turn dormant. As luck would have it a family member asked me if I'd like a newly purchased rhododendron since she was reworking her garden space and no longer had room for it. Wouldn't you know it fit perfectly in place of one of my three grasses. I'll provide a full picture of the newly configured front scape once the grasses have grown in more. 

M y front yard is beginning to come to life as all the dormant trees and perennials slowly show what they've got. With, believe it or not, 9 trees in my front yard alone, the property goes from drab to lush as leaves fill what appears to be empty space. The greatest memorial I have created is through the use of trees, each memorializes the loss of a close loved one and has been specifically planted with a person in mind. Here on the left is a weeping #katsura tree I bought three years ago to honor my grandmother and to it's left (and out of frame) is my newest addition in memory of my father. The #magnoliavirginiana or #sweetbaymagnolia tree was purchased for my house by my first cousins and was waiting for me at home as I returned from my fathers funeral. It had been beautifully wrapped in a funerary purple ribbon. What an amazing thoughtful gift from my cousins. A piece of history and a reminder of my father that I will care for year after year.

After one of the longest and coldest winters experienced here in the northeast, we are finally experiencing many more scattered days filled with bright sunshine and holding temperatures in the 60s. People are smiling a little more brightly and the trees have begun their return from dormancy. The weekends are occupied by homeowner's who either find the yearly spring clean-up daunting or others such as myself, who embrace the chore as a sign of the 4 beautiful months ahead where we get to enjoy general gardening, vegetable growing, swimming and beaching, sunning and an overall period of enhanced outdoor living. This is the time of year northeasterners generally snap out of their malaise and once again come alive. The warmth and light of the past week has beckoned perennials to show their faces and evergreens and trees have sprouted new growth and buds. As it generally happens in the first week the growth seems minuscule and slow and then upon the second week (even though this h