Sprague Parade: Tiny Garden

...the garden is about life and beauty and the impermanence of all things... And what a wonderful relief every so often to know who the enemy is-- because in the garden, the enemy is everything: the aphids, the weather, time. And so you pour yourself into it, care so much, and see up close so much birth and growth and beauty and danger and triumph-- and then everything dies anyway, right? But you just keep doing it."
--Anne Lamott; Bird by Bird

Here is something I remember very clearly from when I was a little girl:

My mother, in sneakers, with a hose, standing on a huge rock in the middle of her garden, watering her Cosmos and Johnny-Jump-ups.

My mother has always been able to grow these beautiful wild gardens. I always thought they were effortless, but recently I've started to realize that actually my mom put a ton of work and love into her plants. When she wasn't working at the toy shop, or cooking, or lugging me off to gymnastics, or making popcorn with me in the kitchen, she was out in the yard gardening with her big yellow radio tuned to a baseball game. And in California, everything grows like mad, so we would have lemons and roses and tulips and honeysuckle... I'm sure a lot of dandelions too. But I don't remember those. I just remember my lovely mother with every cat in the neighborhood by her side, kneeling in some flower bed.

So, anyway, I have decided that I should probably try to grow a garden, because why on earth not? Well, turns out there are a few reasons not too... mostly because getting things to grow is kind of tricky... but, it also turns out that "gardening" is great fun for both Violet and me (as well as Chowder, who is a bit like Godzilla out there; all of my tiny seedlings have to re-learn how to stand up straight every day after he has been reclining on them all afternoon).
This is what I have learned so far: I am very very good at growing oregano. I am so good at growing it, in fact, that maybe what I really should do is open up a pizza joint. However, growing basil is another story, so I guess I'll can that idea.
I am also good at growing chives and snapdragons, and so far lettuce. And (fingers crossed) sunflowers! My nasturtiums are pleading with me to just leave them alone already and let them go. The mint is also in this same boat. But the curry plant is doing well! And apparently I planted petunias.
Then there are these beautiful iris that took pity on me and just came up on their own; as did the thyme. But I like to think I have been nurturing their growth, and that it wasn't just some random act of the universe.

So, there you have it.
.....Photos!