A Morning Walk Around My Garden

This morning was cold but beautiful. Six degrees Celsius (just under 43 Fahrenheit) at 7:00 a.m.  Brrrrrr. The chill was a reminder to cherish these last weeks of the growing season. Here are a few photos from this morning's walk around my garden.

The scene above is one of my favourite parts of my garden at the moment.  It reminds me of 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.  I planted some of the annuals this summer (the blue salvia, petunias and alyssum).  Others have grown back from seed deposited last year (the snapdragons, the coral salvia and the big vine in the background--spanish flag).  The lovely, lonely sunflower to the right was a gift from a bird.

Salvia is without a doubt one of my favourite annuals. It is both elegant and hardy. It will still look beautiful right until the end of October in my Zone 5 garden. Coral salvia (salvia coccinea 'coral nymph') is particularly stunning. I occasionally find the coral plants in garden centres here in the spring or you can order the seed online. This particular plant popped up from seed deposited in the flowerbed last year. Lucky me. I find white salvia (salvia farinacea) to be very useful in the garden. I often use it in my front yard flowerbeds as it combines beautifully with any colour. Another beautiful benefit of salvia is that hummingbirds love it.

And the final image I leave you from my walk around the garden this morning is this sweet little viola. It is so rare to find blue tones in flowers. This beauty is what I would call periwinkle or lavender-blue which happens to be my favourite colour.

*  *  *  *  *

Just a brief postscript. As I've been writing my post this morning, the radio has been reminding me that this is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My husband was scheduled to fly to New York for a business meeting on the 12th (in the financial district but not the towers), so missed being there by a day. We were lucky. I remember how very important my garden was to me in those unsettled days after that terrible event. A garden can be a source of solace, restoration and hope on the darkest days. I planted more spring bulbs that fall than I had in a very long time. Those bulbs provided work for my hands and hope for my heart. My thoughts go out to all touched by that horrendous event ten years ago today.

"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world."

Vita Sackville-West