Focus on Flowers
The longer I garden, the less elitist I have become about the plants that I try to grow.
Early on, I longed for all the more pretentious perennials, but now I prefer the tried and true. Of course, I would still love to grow delphiniums and exotic roses and lilies, but the grim reality is that I can't. I live with lots of hungry deer in an unforgiving climate of extreme temperatures, and I must be realistic about what I can grow. I can't be a flower snob. It is a sad fact of life.
So, this year my garden is just full of annuals including yellow marigolds, and colorful zinnias, and white and purple Angelonia, and blue salvias, and it has lots of color and that makes me happy.
It is like an old friend without pretensions that I can relax with and truly enjoy. I am not trying to impress anyone but just please myself, and I don't even have to buy so much deer spray.
I tried so long and so hard to fight the battle with the deer and finally just gave up and bought three flats of marigolds. And guess what? They look great with my perennials such as catmint, coneflowers, and coreopsis and annuals like cleome and zinnias.
When the deer ate all of my perennial Japanese anemones to the ground, I swallowed hard, but survived and picked a huge bowl of zinnias for my dining room table instead.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on recognizing reality.
