12. New Insight Takes Root

As I walked past the house that has the raised bed made of stone, I saw the homeowner moving her sprinkler around her front yard. I stopped and told her that her raised bed had inspired me to consider doing something similar with a surplus of stones I have taking up space in my tool shed.

She seemed up for a chat, so I started asking her questions. We spoke for several minutes about the flowers and plants in her yard. She’s not from the Midwest, so she talked about having to figure things out in a different climate and with different soil. She talked about the plants that fared well, others that didn’t, and some that she’d dug up because she didn’t like how they looked, grew, or spread.

My conversation with her planted the seed that this gardening thing is about acquired knowledge and not knowing everything before I start. That concept will take a little time to bear fruit. I tend to want to know a lot before I begin anything new. It helps keep the mistakes at a minimum, but it also ensures I miss out on some great experiences.

She told me about the flowers that tend to reseed (day lilies and zinnias) and could help fill out my vast space without extra effort on my part. This conversation helped me keep dreaming, keep envisioning what is possible for my mess of a weedy hill.

What I am most interested in is filling the space I have with low-maintenance plants and flowers that edge out the volume of weeds that have multiplied over summers past. I don’t mind weeding some, but what I am weeding at present is ridiculous.

She even invited me to come back in July to take some of the plants she plans to divide when she returns from a trip to China. Free plants! That’s an idea!