I thought about this when I took my little after-work stroll around the gardens on Friday. Everything’s looking so pretty, color and texture already changing. Then I got to one of my favorite spots, what I think of as a little faerie garden.
I literally stopped dead, stunned speechless.
During my earlier workout, I’d heard Pancho
barking incessantly–and yelled out a few times for him to knock it off. I didn’t think much of it–until I saw my dragon wing begonias, my pretty mini fuchsias, some of the yellow bells and foxglove had been trampled on, and many broken.
It didn’t take much for me to get the picture. Some critter had wandered in, and the dogs had gone wild. Now if a deer passes by, they generally just lie there, maybe give it a glance. I hear them thinking: Okay, it’s bigger than us, we’ll just stay where we are. But a raccoon or possum, that’s fair game.
And the games must’ve been vigorous.
A moment–okay longer than a moment–of heartbreak, and a stern talking to given to the dogs.
While I’d planned a quick trip to the nursery for Saturday, it was for a couple of specific things to fill particular gaps–and didn’t include fixing up that section. Now it would. After I gathered up some of the broken plants–sticking them in water on the faint hope they might shoot some roots–I scribbled down a short list of what I’d need.
Saturday’s trip took longer, and well, there I am in the middle of all those gorgeous plants, so four and a half flats later, I come home. I’ll also confess, I had to make myself stop. So tempting to get more–and somehow I’ll always find room. But enough already.
BW isn’t home today, but will be pleased I only have a single plant I want him to do–pretty big hole needed, and in a tricky spot.
I’ll do the rest.
As I’m setting them out, getting a visual, switching them around, next visual, I realize I never have any real plan when I garden. I have a basic concept I may or may not follow.
That’s just the way I write. Huh.
Both are jobs and joys for me, and I approach both in a way I’ll call organic. Let’s start here and see what happens. After the first draft in a book, I’m going to need to start from the beginning again, start weeding what doesn’t belong, prune out what needs to go. Maybe I have to move what I thought should go here to there.
I’ll need that third pass in a book, doing all the fussy work, making sure this is the best I can do, making sure it all holds together.
Gardening’s the same with my process.
There are going to be gaps that need filling. More color, more texture, maybe a different angle. My nasturtium seeds have only sprouted two little plants. I think about this, move one carefully and plant it with the other.
In its place I fill in with mini fuchsias (I bought far too many for the faerie garden anyway), and some wishbone flowers (not on my list, but too sweet to resist) that should spill nicely over the wall.
Not what I’d intended, but it works. It works really well, and I think, that’s just how it should look. Readjusting with a story is the same. You go where it works.
Water, compost, conversation. You want a strong story, you want strong plants–and I want to be intimately connected to both.
It’s marvelous to watch things bloom, in a story, in a garden–whether it all blooms the way you anticipated at the start, and even more so when it blooms its own unexpected way.
You’re going to get sweaty and tired–and there can be some disasters–having both my hard drive and backup crash simultaneously years back, costing me an entire chapter isn’t so different than seeing a pretty, thriving section of my gardens trampled by a couple of enthusiastic dogs. There I had to go back,reconstruct–and tell myself, as I am with my faerie garden, it’ll only be better for it eventually.
With a book, it’s going to end. You’ll have done the best you could with the story, and you’ll move on. A garden is a constant work in progress. But for me, getting there is pretty much the same.
It’s not so simple. I love gardening, and my rose bushes. It takes a creative eye, and hard work to plant a beautiful garden. But it takes a lot more to write like Nora does. It’s a talent I wish I had, but most of us don’t. I console myself with the thought, that at least I have an author like Nora in my life, and I gain so much from her hard work writing.
Wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing.
We had a squirrel in one of the trees the other day and the dog barked at it a lot. Every time he would stop the squirrel would chitter away as if scolding him and off he’d go again.
It all looks so beautiful.
Beautiful gardens Ms Roberts. I envy that. My thumb is more green than black. I guess that’s why I’m a nurse.
Nora, you are a wonder; I love the analogy of story as garden and vice versa. I have both read and listened to the In the Garden trilogy many times, and your love of gardening, flowers, and nature certainly shines through there, just as with Emma in the Bride Quartet series. Thanks for sharing this part of you! I recently retired and was given a wonderful gift by my colleagues: a night at Inn Boonsboro, plus a gift card to Turn the Page. I will time my next reading of that trilogy to be just prior to my stay, so that I can have the many wonderful details about the Inn restoration right at hand. Can’t wait!
I too have found some plants that I’ll need to replace or baby or do something with. We’ve had some storms and we have had some work done this past month, [reno of garage, replacing a basement and kitchen door] but the kitchen door was special order due to its size and the construction guys put a plywood piece on the opening for a week. I couldn’t get to my plants to water them, so that, plus the storms, have damaged some of my plants. I am hoping they come back but if not I’ll be replacing them too. Its an ongoing project isn’t it?
I love gardens, love to look at them, walk in them, but I’m hopeless as a green thumber, if there’s such a word. The same is true for writing, I’m sure, although I’ve never attempted it. So thank you for sharing, in such a wonderful way, the parallels of the gardening/writing process. It’s safe to say that both require gift/talent, creativity and tons of patience. As for your dogs, I’m sure they were just doing their due diligence in guarding your home from these wayward critters!! (We lost our chocolate lab, Max, last year and we still miss him terribly, even if he did chew up my $300 mouth guard! Guess he thought it was a toy, at the time!). Thanks for the many hours of enjoyable reading!!
I take it the picture is after the dogs got their baths? I understand the magic of plants. I went to the nursery to replace the Japanese painted fern I thought I’d lost to the winter. I told myself, only the fern, only the fern. I came out with “only” two flats of annuals, a flat of herbs, the fern and another tomato (I already have two). My coral bells came back, so that one is okay. In my part of the country, I really should wait a couple more weeks, but you know….I get to the spot where the fern is to go and there’s a two-inch frond! It made it! So, now it has a friend.
I love the analogy between your writing and gardening. Pruning, nurturing, the whole process. There is a magic to your writing and no doubt it also shows in your gardens. Hope they stay “critter” free for the rest of the season!
Dogs were groomed on Saturday morning. They were a disgrace! They did look nice and clean for the pictures. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Love your books (all of them) love website – love your garden pictures – would love to have been able to share pictures of my witchy garden
just finished Dark Witch FAB as usual
This lovely blog post raised some beautiful memories – listening to the song “Pancho and Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt and reading two lovely books, Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It made me think of Nora and her “Garden of Stories”,. All the plants, all the characters, needing attention, encouragement and nurture so they find their predestined place in the overall design. How do you know when any creation is finished? They never are really. They linger on in our memories.
What a beautiful garden, loved the analogy between writing and planting a garden!!!!
Your Pancho is absolutely gorgeous dog! I have to say, since we live in the city, with neighbors that have houses within 15 feet of us, I think, if the dog is barking, it’s automatic for one of us to have to drag him in, even if we have to bribe him. If he’s chasing a squirrel, he’s as quiet as a lamb, but mostly they sit up on the top of the privacy fence and laugh at him because he can’t reach them. If it’s something bigger (once it was a momma raccoon), that usually takes one person pulling on the collar, one person shaking a bag of treats in front of his face, and possibly one person using a shovel to heave the creatures off of it’s perch on top of the chain link section of the fence (yes, that’s happened once).
They’re not much interested in squirrels, and I’ve seen them stay sprawled on the patio when an entire herd of deer stroll by on the ridge above my back garden wall. Ho hum. But a racoon, a possum, or unfortunately a skunk, and they’re all about the battle.
Every time I see pictures of that garden, I am left speechless. To me, it might as well be rocket science. Truly. If you ever need a plant killed, I’m your girl. So looking at those pictures… It just seems superhuman.
I love the parallel between gardening & writing. Seems they’re both its own kind of genius. I certainly enjoy being on the receiving end of the product of all the once-overs, twice-overs, & fussing-overs! Only a fool would consider either task easy, but I know that it must be hard as all get out!
On a different note, I would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall as Nora talked to Pancho & his fellow delinquent! Yikes!
Same with me, Ana.
To all you people who fear you have a black thumb, try this:
Find a sunny spot–somewhere you can see from your windows, or walk by often. Go to your gardening center. Buy a pretty pot (not too small now, the smaller it is, the quicker the soil dries out). Ask someone knowledgeable about low-maintenance annuals in your zone. Buy some that appeal to you–either mix it up or do a flood of one kind. Buy potting soil.
Come home, put an inch or two of styrofoam peanuts in the bottom of the pot for drainage, fill it with potting soil. Put your plants in the pot in a way, again, that appeals to you. Talk to them! Water.
Water every day it doesn’t rain. Hit with some Miracle-Gro or other plant food every few weeks. Tell them how pretty they are.
You can even get clever self-watering pots or pretty devices that self-water the plants if you’re the foregetful sort.
The sun, the water will do the rest.
Success with a single container will make you happy–and maybe next year, you can do more.
Thanks, Nora for all the tips. I’ll try out the story ideas on my novel in process and putting out a pot on my patio. I have North East view so no much sun – I’ll let them know that at the nursery. I have the outline done on my novel started the first scene and got hung up on the dialog. Will write past it and get the story down – its in my head I just have to get it on paper. Good to see your dogs and garden. Trees are just now flowering here. Some dandelions sprouted where people didn’t want them but I found them beautiful.
Your Fan,
Melissa Blanchard.
Even works in the Shade, Nora. See my Facebook page for pictures of my first effort at flower boxes on my patio. Thanks for the inspiration, Nora. Even put out Old Glory too:)
Beautiful garden I posted on adwoff years back about my lab digging up mine. Now I have a Pit Mix who wil trample to get to critters. Fortunately, she’s on a leash and I can rein her in before she does damage. But barking at anything does drive one crazy! Thanks for sharing your garden. Its gorgeous.
Wow, Beautiful gardens. I have no green thumb. When I met my husabnd, he had so many plants and within 6 months of me “helping” him, All but three were dead. I’m still writing, and at least that still lives. LOL. Thanks for sharing your love and passions.
Never thot about styrofoam peanuts in bottom of my pots…verrrrrry clever. Thank you! Curious as to what types of birds you have. I have pair of rose breasted grose beaks that have been eating my suet for couple weeks now…just beautiful. Hummingbirds were late this year but back now and as fun and amazing as ever.
Wish I had more time for more flowers, but so enjoy what I do have and living vicariously in yours 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
I believe in writing you have more power – if you have the gift, of course. Which you do. To spare 🙂 – than with gardening.
You see you hole yourself at the attic and fight to get the story and the fly with it. Outside, in the garden, there’s racoons, dogs if you’re fortunate, pests, climate changes that run havoc some years. When something is not right with a plant it might be doomed. If something is not right with a story, you better make it right LOL 🙂
But I understand where you put the parallel of creativity between the two activities.
Thanks so much, Nora, for those tips! Doesn’t seem as overwhelming when you start small. I did plant some sunflower seeds along the sunny side of my house last year, and they did grow well. Happily, I didn’t kill them!!
Everything looks beautiful….I got a beautiful hydrangea plant from my son as one of his Mother’s Day gifts and had it on my back patio. I decided to plant it in the front of the house remembering how beautiful my mother-in-laws always looked in the front of her home. They grew big and beautiful for her. I checked with a friend about the deer. She said “no problem….deer friendly”. For 3 days all was fine. On the fourth day when I went to give it water, it was gone!! Eaten right down to the ground!!! I called my friend and said “hey, guess what…you need to tell the deer that they don’t like hydrangeas!!! They didn’t get the memo!! So no more hydrangea for me! I’m going to transplant one of my big aloe plants in that spot.
Lovely garden, Nora. I could sit out there in the shade for hours ~ reading, meditating, watching the butterflies! Do you have a Dogwood tree? I had one in Virginia, so beautiful in bloom. In Oregon I had Rhododendron, ferns and lots of moss. In Texas…. not so much. Stuff will grow but requires so much watering, which we can’t do in drought conditions (like now).
Thanks for sharing your garden and your thoughts ~
Thanks for being an inspiration, Nora. You have made a big difference in my life. Through good and bad I always turn to your books, your blog and your FB page. Keep on writing and sharing.
Your fan,
Melissa Blanchard
Dogs, gardens & writing make a lovely spring day all the more memorable. My Golden, Daizy, is into sniffing my Lily of the Valley which are out in full force here in the Northwest. She know a good thing when she smells it! She also loves to dig wherever she “places” her tennis ball every time I garden. Then our gardening becomes bath time with the hose to clean the muddy paws. All part of her game! I just finished Nora’s “Shadow Spell” & loved it & after reading the excerpt for “The Collector”, will go in search of it tomorrow. Btw … This is my first post on any blog ever!!!
Beautiful garden Nora, I don’t have a lot of flowers, but love them. I see all these photos but can’t seem to make it work in my yard. I have raised beds in the backyard and grow lots of veggies, but just can’t seem to get the “pretty” stuff working… I’d love to be able to hire a landscaper to come do something with my yard.