Sedum watch!

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Added: Thu Aug 21st 2:55pm
Posted in: Living

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In the days before I had a big flower garden (which puts me roughly at just last summer), I hadn't a clue about what fun and suspense and celebration and even mourning could go into watching stuff grow.  Or not.  Up until then, my gardening experience was pretty much marked by failure and neglect.  Once upon a time, when the kids were much younger, I had the spouse dig me up a stretch of the front yard and I  kept a few perennials growing, even mulched it with cocoa bean hulls from time to time.  But then came the horseback riding accident fifteen years ago that put me in a body cast for three months, and by the time it didn't hurt so much to bend over again, the weeds had taken over the place.  I knew my limitations and gave up.

Now life's quite a bit different, and by just how much can be measured by the surprise and excitement I felt when I stopped at my local plant nursery a few days ago to pick up a few more delphiniums.  Next to the checkout counter lay a single stalk of sedum, with large white flowers about to open and bi-colored leaves.  Now generally I don't even LIKE sedum...but I could appreciate a natural work of splendor anyway.  And when I remarked at its beauty, the gal at the counter urged me to take the orphaned stalk, cut the stem back a little and stick it in the ground in the hope that it would take root.

I did, and now every day is marked by a trip out to the lone stalk of sedum with a watering can and a cautious hope that the plan might work.  Like a mother hen waiting for her egg to hatch.  Yes, I admit to being easily amused...but I'm so glad I have this for a reason!  And to revisit the reason I've got the gardens in the first place, turn back to Wildflower seeds and beer to see how the gardening story started.