B.V. overflow

There are two shoulder seasons in most gardens: late spring to early summer and late summer to early fall. These are the periods between three traditionally very showy flower displays. Spring is marked by release and joy, as nature seemingly renews itself and excites us with a bounty of life we’d almost forgotten in the winter months. Summer is awash in a cacophony of texture, color, scents and sounds, when the garden takes on an extra dimension with all manner of wildlife coming and going. Finally, autumn is the spectacular finale, when everything seems to give what it had in reserve, to tide us over until the next growing season. For many of us, late May to mid-June and late August to early September are transition zones — chapter breaks or places to catch our breadth. Certainly, those moments are budding crescendos where we can find something more about ourselves, the plants and the wildlife that mingle in the designed landscape. What’s a garden for but to bridge lives and voices, seasons and years, lifetimes and dreams? This summer may be the best ever.

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Celebrate the First Flowers of Early Summer I’m watching the first buds of pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) and purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) prepare to break open. For my garden in Nebraska, these two plants are what crack the dam in the garden. Purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata), wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), upright prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera) and many tickseed (Coreopsis spp.) species soon follow.After that, it’s a high summer free-for-all, and I wonder what I ever got anxious for and why I didn’t take the time to enjoy the cool, pensive, quiet moment in late spring when the garden was becoming ready and the rains were still plentiful. We’re often in a rush to grow up or be somewhere else, and sometimes the garden can remind us that if we live more fully in the present, we’ll be better prepared and accepting for what comes next....

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