Last Spring I planted three Peony tubers, knowing it takes a few years to produce the flowers but also aware that the result would be glorious and worth the wait. Having had Peonies in our previous house, I thought I knew what to expect the first year: evidence of life, a few leaves, maybe little plants busy gathering strength for the display that I was certain lay in their future. But there was nothing.
Like my kids used to say, “Big, fat, nuffin'”
So this spring, I decided to convert that bed to a small vegetable garden. I’ve been researching rabbit-proof boundaries, then decided I needed to build a raise bed because the rabbits around here are pretty much like the Tasmanian Devil.
Nothing is left standing in their wake.
I planted seeds and have been happily watching the seedlings sprout in my laundry room before transitioning them to the back porch to acclimate and await their permanent home in my garden. I still don’t have a raised bed, but it was on my “social distancing to-do list.”
God chuckles when we make plans. I should know that by now.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon outdoors. In the sun. In. The. Sun. Glory, hallelujah! The kids were playing games, one happily immersing her feet in mud and relishing the squishy feel between her toes as she chased the puppy who was also enjoying said mud. (We have drainage issues in our yard. Big ones.) I inspected the daffodils, considered clipping a few to bring indoors and noticed, happily, that the baby Crape Myrtles I had planted at the end of the season last year are not, in fact, dead. Signs of life have appeared on the lower half of the foot-tall plants and I can’t wait to watch them grow this year!
Finally, we made our way over to the side garden, where I planned to place my raised vegetable planter. I gasped.
There, poking proudly above the worn-out, faded mulch, were three little shoots…bright red and green in their youth…peonies.
They are alive! I didn’t kill them! There is hope and…
now I have to figure out where to plant all those vegetables!
I would love to know…what are you doing as we wait out the Coronavirus to make beauty in and around your home? Please share, either in the comments or by emailing alifeofsimplejoys@gmail.com. I may take my favorites and post about them in the coming weeks!
A Life of Simple Joys 