Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:24:35 -0400
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: Glittered like diamonds . . .
Last year it was December when I raked the leaves from my wild floral border. This year, due to the weather and other problems, I did not get around to doing it until February. It is the strip of land that borders old Hyway 64 and the hyway’s drainage ditch. A huge terracotta pipe runs under the hyway and adds drama to the setting. All along the edges are Christmas ferns, just now sending up their bright green fiddle heads. The soil here is poor. Mostly what was left over from the old days of the highway in the 1930s. My section was not used by the public after the early 1940s.
Over the years, I have gotten hostas, Bluebells and native trillium to thrive, not much else. In the 1970s I had some luck with Colorado columbine and Iceland Poppies. Two weeks ago, I scattered a lot of packaged wildflower seeds and some poppy seeds. Apparently at the right time, I believe they all sprouted and just now producing their second leaves. Three days ago, I sprinkled the whole area with a rich top-soil mixture I bought from Poultry Villa. Today I noticed that the hard freeze last night had not harmed any of the seedlings. I also attacked the barren strawberries that were trying to take over.
At one point, about two thirty, the position of the sun, slanted over the landscape and my tender border, hit directly on the pavement and the soil, mica chips, thousands upon thousands of tiny glittering ‘diamonds’ sparkled around the plants and seedlings. As with most all good things, it disappeared as fast as it had materialized. Leaving me with the promise and expectations of glorious future flowers. Jewels in their own right, but not as fleeting . . .
N.A. Booko
N.A. Booko lives, writes and gardens in Chatham County and has done so for the past 40 years . I am no spring daffy dil . . . I’m gittin’ on up ther-