Despite assurances to the contrary from the proprietress of one of the nurseries near me, I still felt like I was the last person on the planet planting anything this spring. I had intentions of going many times, but didn’t get there til last weekend. Finally!
This was the only color Impatiens left! This children’s bench is next to my front door.
As the landscaping on my property is already taken care of, I have just my lovely, deep front and back porches to consider. Picking flowers that are fairly hardy, (meaning I can’t easily kill them), and that provide nice pops of color are the simple goals I have in mind.
I’ve never purchased Vinca before, but they were so pretty. I will have to read up on them so I know what they need.
Being as late in the season as I was getting to the nursery, I was disappointed to find that the color and plant selection had really been winnowed down. Next to nothing was left in yellows and purple shades, so I just went with a few basics. I could no doubt stop by Home Depot or Lowe’s and round out what I have, but honestly? when I’m done this, I’m done, and I’m moving on to a multitude of other things on my to-do list. Plus I like supporting local small businesses.
This angle doesn’t show how really, really leggy the petunias are.
Everything you see here had been waiting one week on my back porch, but even so, most of the plants were already overgrown. The petunias are terrible leggy, the sweet alyssum struggling, the vinca tall. But I’ll let them all settle in a bit and then start cutting back as needed. Hopefully, in a few weeks, they will be happier and looking healthier.
I have probably over planted this good-sized pot with three Coleus and three Sweet Alyssum, but it is practically July. This is a spot on my front porch where coleus are absolutely ecstatic.
As always, after I’m done, and have cleaned up, I look at my effort and say, `for all that time, is this all there is?’ I have flashes of luxuriously planted porches I’ve seen in Better Homes and Gardens and feel I should immediately go back out, get more pots, more plants and a boatload more soil and seriously get gardening! Alas, that’s what I’d love, but not what I have time for.
Another shady spot for hardy Impatiens.
Instead I have my humble little pots of flowers all about my porches, and they elicit a smile wherever I sit. I will tend them and help them be full and bushy or tall and elegant, whatever they need, and as the summer goes on they’ll thrive. It’s enough.
The good news is that one agent confirmed my story is unique and not on the market, and she really liked the concept. The not-surprising news is I have a lot of work ahead of me, as in, now I have to write the rest of the book! This agent really paid attention when looking at my synopsis and the first 15 pages of my manuscript, and offered solid advice. I also came armed with lots of questions, and the ensuing discussion helped to highlight areas I need to focus on, existing concepts I might change to improve it, etc. So for that critique alone, the conference was worth it.
lovely 
she lives in today … Full of lovingly drawn characters and vividly described places, A Good Home takes the reader through deeply moving stories of marriage, children, the death of parents, and an accident that takes its high-flying author down a humbling notch.”
Not to mention, I am still living in the world of Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize winning author of All the Light We Cannot See. Yesterday, before I closed-up shop for the day on my work, I read a bit online about him and his other books, and watched a video of how he came to write this phenomenal book. I also looked at photographs of Saint Malo, the walled city on the coast of Brittany, bombed practically beyond recognition at the end of World War II, and an important location for much of the story. Doerr wanted to write a different tale about the war, and much like the outstanding author of The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, he certainly has done that. I am at times brought to tears at the beauty of Doerr’s use of words, and am moved by the story he tells.
Still A Dreamer 