Gardening in the Time of Covid-19, Part IV: Portable Outdoor Mosaic Moss Garden

James Wong, an ethnobotanist and known as @botanygeek on Twitter shared a YouTube video of Mossin' Annie dressed in marvelous shades of purple, mossin' away, selecting them from kid-sized sleds filled with mosses acquired from parking lots and the such before placing a patchwork of different varieties in a shady part of her garden. His enthusiasm for her enthusiam as both are passionate about mosses made me wonder on the fifty-third day of the lockdown (Confinement Jour 53) if there was something I could do with those growing in our urban garden.

Ideas started to bubble up, one by one, until they were realised into a triangular arrangement of square plastic pots whose colours complemented each other as their points came together in the centre, that is, blue almost touches the orange while violet, the yellow. The pots being surrounded by wood chips contained in a terracotta saucer are provided with a neutral background. My moss interest is merely one of a novice, but my love of colour is obsessional. 

One of my garden hats became the inspiration for remembering and then using the recycled, brightly coloured, plastic pots. Strips of bubble-gum pink, lime-green, and orange are toned down with the inclusion of bands of more neutral accents like navy blue and brown.

The lovely emerald patches are most likely fern mosses.

So where was I able to find these specimens? One came from a tub of miniature roses. That dark patch roughly in the middle was where that moss once lived. It was scooped up with a spoon, though it could have just been pulled away with my fingers. Potting mix was moistened and packed all the way to the rim of a pot; the moss was placed on top and lightly pressed down. 

The other three came from the central, cement path's end which is close to our garden's wild area. Those were quite thin and needed to be scraped off with a knife.

They were growing under ivy. 

The wild area is about one-hundred-square-metres and runs across the back width of our six-hundred-square-metre main garden. Since the lockdown, this shady area has been included in my daily, thirty-minute garden walks taken at twilight. Below shows a path flanked with blooming, and ever-so fragrant, honeysuckle.

The portable, shade-loving moss garden was designed to be placed under the ivy-covered pergola where I often go to rest after a gardening chore. As I sat relaxing and looking at the finished project, I thought, very adorable, but not substantial enough, so . . .

. . . the mosses are moving into bigger real estate where they will be spritzed with water from time to time.

À la prochaine!

Gardening in the Time of Covid-19, Part III: Returning Sounds, Sights & Smells of Nature

On the 45th day of lockdown (Confinement Jour 45), I find myself sitting under our urban garden's ivy-covered pergola to rest after completing a garden task, realising though always pleasant, it is even more so. Birdsong has little competition from traffic noise. True now as before, after a rain, petrichor permeates throughout, but at present, before the rain and its fragrant aftermath, the air is already wonderfully fresh.

Looking through the sous sol's potting room's window with its coloured glass bottle collection towards the ivy-covered pergola

Then there are the moles. One of their many dirt volcanoes can be seen in the below photo's upper right corner. Why have they entrenched themselves for the first time in the ten years since our arrival? My guess is the lockdown-related decrease in vibrations caused by street traffic including fewer trucks rumbling down one long side of our garden flanking a refrigeration depot's entrance has attracted these industrious soil diggers. After some research I have concluded there are three perspectives on having garden moles:

1) Get rid of these dangerous, disease-carrying, dirt-dragons/rodents as quickly as possible with poison. (Call our extermination service for an estimate.)

2) Be humane to both these annoying critters and your lawn. Trap and release them. (Where? Regardless of the lockdown, if released they will either come back or bother someone else.)

3) Co-exist. They bring benefits too like aerating the soil (those mounds of theirs are excellent with which to top up veggie beds), eating tons of detrimental grubs, and fertilising the soil. As our 'lawn' is mostly English daises and moss, and their mounds though plentiful are not disturbing the roots of bushes and plants, this perspective has become mine.

Centre: osteospermum; heucheras of varying hues: clockwise, paprika, Georgia peach & tirasmu; lavender pot: lantana

This past late winter, an acquaintance of The Calm One gave us many a potted miniature rose. At that time, the floral donation was leafless. All got a good pruning. Then I had to wait a few months to see what colour blooms they would have. Out of around fifteen, only a couple have not yet set flowers. I do not know the different varieties' names, but they are all beauties soaking up the sun on sous sol window sills facing south. During the growing season, each gets sprayed for blackspot monthly and have a few drops of liquid fertiliser added to the watering can almost daily.

Here's a close up of a deep-pink one.

And of a tiny white rose.

Also of a gorgeous coral-coloured bloom.

A tub of two turned out to have deep red, quartered roses. Such flowers look fantastic against a complementary background of deep green, so it is now fronting a patio cutout's calla lily thicket.

Such a beautifully formed rose!

That diminutive ruby stunner has big competition though. Outside the balcony entrance's front door, curving up high over the weigela, is a robust climber, Étoile de Hollande, fragrant beyond belief, so deeply red it can look almost black, and with a velvet sheen that is mesmerising.

Here's one huge, ruffled bloom.

À la prochaine!

Gardening In The Time of Covid-19, Part II: Resilience

Though resilience has always been part of my emotional and mental arsensal since childhood, it has never been more important than now as France enters its tenth day of lockdown. Research shows that elements of resilience can be cultivated, in other words, it's not just a personality trait. Adversity is an opportunity to further learn how to regulate emotions, keep cognition clear and solution-based, and to accomplish goals regardless. The kingdom of plants has held me in thrall from earliest memory. Their flexibility despite being sessile, that is, fixed-in-place, astounds and is one of the attractions gardening holds for me. If the winds buffets them, their elaborate chemistry ensures that their stems thicken to take on the challenge. Some marigold seedlings were started early and put in a cold frame to protect them against frosty overnight conditions, but during the day the tiny greenhouse is cracked open so the wind will encourage their delicate stems to strengthen.

Though fungi are not plants, they certainly are a presence in the garden. They are tough little things living off the fat of the land, like this small scarlet elf cap (Sarcoscypha coccinea) in the wild part of our garden, 'munching' on a dead twig, helping it to become soil. Being in a country with a high standard of living (plus a social safety net), believe you me, there's a lot of 'fat' available to keep us two from shopping and going out on a daily or even a weekly or longer basis. We are checking our immediate environment for ways to occupy and take care of ourselves while sheltering in place so as to keep all of us safe. It's sobering to realise how readily we have regarded superfluous activities and merchandise as necessary.

During the latter half of my forty-five-minute, twilight garden-romp yesterday, the air was filled with the enveloping sound of church bells ringing and ringing and ringing from all directions. I asked myself, has the Pope died, perhaps Macron? I finally conjectured that it had to do with some religious event. Later on, I found out that since Catholics couldn't celebrate Ascension at churches, bells instead were rung all over France to foster a sense of congregation. The below photo shows the part of my 'exercise track' flanking the wild area. I do various sized figure-eights by skirting around bushes, chairs, structures, the many terracotta-roofing-tile-framed parterres, and the driveway which is on a decline, all over the garden plus going up and down the steps leading to the entrance balcony. That blur of green jutting out from the photo's lower right is a plastic pot alerting me to the danger of my possibly becoming impaled in dim light on the double metal arch lying upon its side. The goal is to keep me healthy so I don't bother beleaguered medical staff not to cause a major commotion of someone arriving at the emergency room resembling a vampire who has met her end!

On today's morning, a cold, sunny one, my seeing that our bay laurels were covered in bright yellow flowers was a welcomed sight.

Ten years ago, they were fifteen centimetres/six-inch high seedlings, volunteers from a neighbor's hedge. They are much, much, much taller nowadays.

Their flowers are held in puffy clusters.

Our patio's pergola is covered partially with ivy which has grown up three of its pillars and is now spreading over its upper cross beams. Additionally, on the side facing the garden, it has cloaked a dead honeysuckle vine and a dying rose. With this abundance and structure, I say topiary is in order thusly the rose support is being shaped into a wishbone . . .

. . . and the honeysuckle support into a column topped with a heart.

The upper parts of the three pillars are being trimmed into rounded forms. I love the process of it, that is, their developing a monumental presence under my guidance.

Bearded irises are in full bloom. I put some in a vase near one of the sous sol windows; I shot the photo below from outside, capturing an almost watery reflection. One of the pergola's ivy-covered pillars and a terracotta-roofing-tile framed bed seem to be setting out gentle ripples.

À la prochaine!

RELATED LINKS

How the Pandemic Will End, an excellent Atlantic Monthly article by the very impressive science journalist, Ed Yong. (Paywall is suspended during the pandemic, but registering is required.)

That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief

Is Anyone Else Just Barely Functioning Right Now?

Gardening In The Time Of Covid-19*

I have felt a deep affection for our garden during the past ten years, so it's challenging to express how much more I presently love it as France completes its third day of lockdown while spring makes its much awaited appearence.

Foreground: off the patio white sweet alyssum, red tulip, abelia, irises, ivy-covered pergola pillar; background: lawn and that wide, brown smear is the asparagus bed.

Our larder and freezer is well stocked allowing us to refrain from food shopping (which is permitted but only if carrying a self-signed certificate printed from the government's website) which is mutually beneficial for us and others. But fresh can't be beat and the seven-year-old asparagus bed has begun in earnest last week popping out spears. Though their delectable taste lessens each day of storage, cutting off the woody ends (trimmings can be used for making stock), placing the asparagus upright in a jar with 2.5 cm (an inch) of water, and covering with a plastic bag keeps their flavour longer. In this way enough can be harvested to make a soup.

Rhubarb will soon be on its way.

In about a week, pea shoots will be ready for picking. Ah, fresh greens!

In about two months, raspberries born on last season's canes will be ripe. Once harvested, those canes will be cut almost to the ground, and new ones will grow enabling a second crop for September.

Strawberries will be ready by beginning of May.

I haven't planted any new tulips last autumn and hope what is in the ground will do their thing soon. Presently, there are single show stoppers like an Apeldoorn Darwin Hybrid bud peeking out in between an ivy-covered fence and a Leyland cypress hedge . . .

. . . and this sprightly Seadov Triumph tulip sprouting on the compost under a rusty pole . . .

. . . and finally this Purple Dream lily-flowered tulip gracing the front garden.

A sizable expanse of low-growing, evergreen periwinkle (Vinca minor) just off the front entrance staircase is full of their lovely blue blooms. 

À la prochaine!

* Yes, Love In The Time Of Cholera by Márquez inspired my post title!

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