The other night at a most enjoyable wedding, our friend William introduced me to a table full of strangers who’s dinner table we crashed, as a blogger. Thanks William, you made me sound interesting and I was most flattered by that. And it was good to discover you are a regular reader. Actually, I may have thought that was the coolest part.
Sunday we drove up to Harrisonburg and helped a friend with his garden. It was yet another grey, chilly morning here, but as soon as we drove over the Blue Ridge, the sun popped out and it turned out to be quite the glorious day. Said friend bought this house from gardeners last year and is still learning what’s what. We thinned some things, I left strict instructions as to what to touch and what not to touch (Like ‘the weeds’ under the porch, which is actually a completely sweet columbine I’ve never seen before!) and the peonies that I want a tiny cutting from, but I have to wait until fall (which apparently is when you split and plant them)
And I got some of this:
Anything that resembles a daisy, I’m a sucker for. And I think I grabbed some pink verbena. I know I grabbed it from around this plant, which I think is Bloody Sorrel. (I took these last year trying to help him figure out what’s what) so hopefully I got the pink and not the yellow. He’s got both, so we’ll see what blooms. I plan on getting a cutting of those pink peonies (I LOVE peonies!) and I should remember to get some of that Sorrel. Darn rabbits ate all mine.
Pat thinned out the strawberry patch and I brought home the ‘waste’ and used it to square up my volunteer strawberry patch.
Really, it is squared now. You just can’t see it quite yet. It is laid out in a more linear, thought about pattern. Sort of.
My volunteer strawberry patch is smack dab in the center of my garden. I bought one of those fancy looking strawberry pots and I moved it around my vegetable garden. Well, some runners jumped and attached themselves. I couldn’t bring myself to pull out perfectly good strawberry plants and the next year they gave out enough berries for all three of us to have fresh berries with breakfast for a solid month, so I really couldn’t yank them, now could I? So, now I’ve added to them….I keep saying I’m going to build a new strawberry patch and I really mean to do it, one of these days….maybe next year? It involves terracing the hill next to the house covered with the sort of grass that never dies, no matter what and we can’t decide on what building material to use, actually, we really like the idea of rock walls, only I really should pay someone to do it right and if we put the garden on the list of things we pay other people to do….well, there’s a few more important things on that list, so it might be awhile. Unless of course, I get the gumption to just figure it out myself.
Next year.
I’ve been saying that since we bought the house, almost 12 years ago.
Anyway.
There is my early April garden. That green spot smack dab in the middle is my strawberry patch. It takes valuable tomato real estate, which is why I really need to get motivated…
And behind that is Pat’s work rig. And that will be the last picture I have of that thing in the background of one of my garden pictures. As of tomorrow, we will no longer be ‘the people by Greenleaf Park with all the canoes’. He’s changing jobs. He’s going to be the new Upper James RiverKeeper for the
James River Association. Pretty exciting stuff. His job for the
Bay Foundation brought us here 14 years ago this September. For almost 12 years, we’ve been known as the canoe people by Greenleaf Park. I’ve overheard it referenced in conversations, I’ve given directions to people and told them our house is the one with the canoes and they always exclaim “I know exactly where you live!” or “I’ve always wondered about those canoes!”. After tomorrow, they will disappear and no doubt people that don’t know us will wonder what happened to them.
We’ll get a new boat or two, but it won’t be the same as a big rig of canoes that people stop and ask about.
Although I won’t miss that thing being parked in a spot by the road where it’s blocking the sunlight to my garden.
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Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 
COngrats on starting a new chapter!!! My strawberries are green too…and i threw some different kinds of lettuce seeds in another bed. We will see what happens. I'll keep you posted. I am trying to work on my apathy issues, last year all my veggies felt it. the columbines are beautiful by the way.
Bye Bye VWEPular! Many good memories of being in your yard with the canoes in the background.