Garden Dreams and Dirty Nails: Losing one's mojo

I wasn't too surprised that I had only one post last year, but disappointed, since the yard looked beautiful. We had lots of steady rain! I just lost my mojo last Spring, I couldn't do any drawing for about three months, and the garden was a good place to be, but sometimes a bit redundant.

A new Spring/Summer of 2021! The current Pandemic is winding down here in the states, it is raging still in other parts of the world. I'm cautiously optimistic. Thankfully, we have a new president, Joe Biden with VP Kamala Harris, people who actually care about the country. Time for a deep breath. Covid has taught me to be more aware of my breathing!

So it seems we are headed towards the depths of climate change. We have had extreme high temperatures and no rain for several weeks. Before that we dropped to new lows in temperatures. Minnesota has always been prone to flip flops in weather, so maybe our new normal will be just more of the same, keeping us on our toes!

Fortunately, other than all the vegetable garden plantings, and a new cherry tree, Sweet Cherry Pie, I haven't planted too many new perennials. Well, a few hosta, an astilbe, and a ligularia. I've got a lot of bare areas, some near the new cherry tree, some at the back of the southwest garden. It will all have to wait until late summer, or near Fall. I need a break from watering! Even with all the perennials, and natives, the garden looks so sad.

The absence of Monarchs is also very sad. I have seen one in the yard, and a total of three in the neighborhood. I've looked for eggs several times with no luck, but I have seen some evidence of milkweed getting eaten.

I had a funny aha moment when looking at the photo that was my inspiration for path gardening. I realized it was made up entirely of shrubs and small trees! No perennial plants! That observation and our heat and drought got me to thinking that adding more shrubs and trees may be a good idea!