This past Saturday I prayed for good sales as they have been petty the past couple of farmers’ markets. No one is in the mood to see another plant die in this summer heat. So we focused on indoor plants, and the people loved our jades! Answered prayer. We had littler jade plants in small terra cottas or vintage pots.
And then we had trees … have you ever had a jade plant bloom? Please tell me about it!
I felt a whisper of refreshing air last night while in the screen house repotting succulents into darling little vintage pots … maybe? Early today I stood by the opened patio door to hear the morning greetings of our feathered friends, and I felt the air change. Yes, autumn is around the corner! Every year for over 40 years, I have said those words “I felt the air change today”. I grew up watching the weather and hearing about it from my farmer father. He would read the Farmer’s Almanac, have a weather ban radio playing in his office every morning, evening, and on occasions of severe weather threats. Mostly I remember the feeling when a shift in air direction and the front would roll in with clouds and sometimes rain with it. And then the refreshing change. Awe! Autumn in 4 – 6 weeks, and saying goodbye to sizzling summer. My oldest daughter remembers these words well, too. Rachel wrote a poem about these words, her mother saying them, and autumn. And we chatted today about those words …
The woods begin to vibrate with gathering and preparation.
The sounds so crisp, electric.
Her words were “I felt the air change today.”
Red, orange, yellow, green, brown.
They dance while falling.
A choreographed waltz.
Every year she said “I felt the air change today.”
Beautiful, breathtaking, loyal.
The Canvas.
I think I felt the air change today.
This summer our fiddle leaf fig trees have shown much growth being outdoors under our shade trees with this Missouri humidity. Their leaves are bright green and shiny when they first leaf out. Our biggest one will not fit inside the greenhouse structure any longer. Its tap-root was pulled from the grounds of the greenhouse’s original site in May, and has grown another 3 feet since. It is the companion to one of our maple trees in the backyard. We will repot the “jolly green giant” and look for a buyer with a cathedral ceiling as it will not survive Missouri’s winter. I have grown to love our overabundance green foliage in the front and backyards. Wishing I lived at Hilton Head Island, SC or Savannah, GA where our plants would have a chance outdoors year round. But then again, I love Missouri’s autumn colors and spring’s growth and renewal from the frozen earth. Missouri has the four seasons, some shorter than others. This year, it has been a long summer. The day will come any time soon when I can say “I felt the air change today” in anticipation of autumn. More on that in another post … 
This June the Japanese beetles made their way to our yard. (They are not really June bugs, but they arrive in June in my world.) And of course, we have much for them to munch on as our greenhouse is still in reconstruction. These shiny metallic looking green bugs seem to love our basil, and tasted the hydrangeas, geraniums, and hibiscus. We are thankful as the plants’ temporary home, our green screen house seems to capture the little critters. And while they mate on the screen, we capture them into jars that become their coffins. Dean & I seem to have conquered this bug invasion, but are on guard everyday, morning and night for the next couple of weeks. Beware!
The ambiance and local menu tonight was colorful. My huge kitchen is decorated with vases of our cut flowers and the fireplace mantle is overcome by beautiful blue hydrangeas from my parents’ yard. Dean & I’s dinner plates were filled with roasted spring root veggies and beef farm fresh by friends who allow their cattle to graze in their farm’s natural pastureland. I sit on my patio listening to the evening chatter of the birds and crickets until the summer night sky is dotted with fire flies. I needed some beauty in my life today.
My feline companions bat at the moth and June bug on the patio screen hoping to get a hold of them. Celine and Lily will need to stay inside as the neighborhood Great Horned owl visits our tall backyard maple tree some evenings. This may be one of those evenings. We protect our animals from harm with barriers like screen doors. Maybe similar to how our God sets up boundaries for us. I take in the beauty of our green friends, the plants we care for everyday. Tonight I will not water or trim or plant. I will sit and enjoy the greenery. They endured the sudden hail storm yesterday. Our elephant ear , banana trees, and birds of paradise have ripped leaves now. These plants will come through after some shedding. Is not life like that? We get hammered by hard blows, unwarrantly and needlessly. Yet, we rise again to be ourselves, probably better people for it if we allow. Thank you God for the beauty my eyes behold tonight, and the reminder that the heart heals.
I ponder the Photo Challenge of the Week: Hands. I keep coming back to the famous art work by Michelangelo’s “Hands of God And Adam”. Adam literally means “earth” in Hebrew, what God called His first man. This Hebrew word is derived from a word which means “to be red”, ruddy color like man’s skin or the Akkadian word “adamu” meaning “to make”. According to Genesis, Adam was made from the earth “adamah”.
With gardening, I feel the presence of God in all my senses. I touch the dirt, the living earth. I smell the basil as I plant it in the terra cotta pot, and hear the raindrops fall on its leaves. My eyes and heart see the delicate pink hibuscus blossom opened wide to the sunlight peaking above the green tree tops. And I taste the goodness of God when I indulge in my salad greens. God is good!
Being home today brought a sense of belonging. I am rarely home, and it was wonderful to be here. “Home is where the heart is” as the saying goes. I took a stroll around the yard checking the greenhouse plants that now make home here. They like it here! They nestle between trees and shrubs and in our lime green screen house. The beautiful Japanese maple and dogwood trees in the photo below provide shelter so filtered sunlight peeks between the lush leaves, perfect for the red leaf philodenrons and ferns.
After my morning stroll I ate my tuna sandwich and sipped on iced gingerale with the windows open, fresh air gently blowing in, and sunshine beaming through the tree branches. This lovely May day brought another mild evening with a cooling breeze. Ah, it is quiet at home as I am here by myself. Only the sounds of birds tweeting while I prepare dinner. Dean is visiting with family at his son’s out-of-town graduation. Simple. No conversation, no TV, no need for music as I sing my own tunes today. Life is good.
Blooming and green plants, and planters, these have been my focus for the market the past couple of weeks. Mother’s Day weekend went well. I anticipate this coming weekend to be another great day at the market. Rain or shine, the families come to buy local! The Lake Saint Louis Farmers’ and Artists’ Market made the “Show Me St Louis” show on April 30. And I am proud that the Deanna Greens and Garden Art booth shows up on the segment after about 1 minute into the video. I am servicing a woman and her daughter in this short clip. Here is the link:
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=318235
I have been everywhere and back this past 10 days. Yes, it has been that long since I posted on my blog. Besides my full-time job and everywhere it sends me any given day, I have spent time with family, and of course at the greenhouse. The greenhouse is not so crowded these days. Yeh! We have been selling many botanicals, perennials, and herbs, mostly at the Saturday farmers’ market. Our wild-looking tomato plants have not been a hot selling item. Not because of their looks we do not suppose, but because the township where we sell does not allow its residents to plant vegetable gardens! Yes, you read that correctly. I could not believe what I heard residents saying. So our healthy, long-stemmed tomato plants have made new homes in organic farm fields as well as in family and friends’ yards where they are wanted. Our farmers’ market clients have swooped up bedding plants and hanging planters. Our greens are loved by others besides ourselves! With my restless personality, we have started moving some other plants out of the greenhouse to our yard in preparation of our move Memorial Day weekend. Our “momma” plants, a huge arrowhead, rabbit’s fern, and red-leaf philodendron are sheltered under the Japanese maple near our front porch. The beautiful geraniums made their way to the wagon in our front yard. And the Kingston ferns are loving the filtered sunlight under the big sugar maple. My husband put up the screen house in the backyard ready to put the little plants on tables inside after this busy Mother’s Day weekend. It the midst of all this activity, one evening I found an immature robin bird sleeping in the “momma” red-leaf. It was awaken by my watering. He scurried away from me in short flight, but hung around the front yard. I think this robin bird became as restless as I feel. He was not around the next morning. So happy our plants made a home for him while he was learning to fly. Just hope the neighbor tom cat did not come around.
Dean & I have been to our eyeballs with green, green, green. Every now & then, one of our greenhouse plants is brown! This can be from a number of causes … pests, too much water, not enough water, root damage from a transplant. We are learning more about greenhouse pests, slugs and aphids, and natural methods to eliminate them. We use beer for the slugs. They must want a drink served in recycled jar lids, and find themselves swimming in the fermented drink which they eventually dissolve in. Yuck! And then aphids dislike dish soap, pepper spray, and lady bugs. The last resort will be buying some lady bugs. Gobble them up, ladies! 
I found this gardener/author, and thought to share his humorous poem about “why did my plant die?” Enjoy!
A poem by Geoffrey B. Charlesworth …
Why Did My Plant Die?
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
You hoed it down. You weeded it.
You planted it the wrong way up.
You grew it in a yoghurt cup
But forgot to make a hole;
The soggy compost took its toll.
September storm. November drought.
It heaved in March, the roots popped out.
You watered it with herbicide.
You scattered bonemeal far and wide,
Attracting local omnivores,
Who ate your plant and stayed for more.
You left it baking in the sun
While you departed in a run.
To find a spade, perhaps a trowel,
Meanwhile the plant threw in the towel.
You planted it with crown too high;
The soil washed off, that explains why.
Too high pH. It hated lime.
Alas it needs a gentler clime.
You left the root ball wrapped in plastic.
You broke the roots. They’re not elastic.
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
You splashed the plant with mower oil.
You should do something to your soil.
Too rich, too poor. Such wretched tilth.
Your soil is clay. Your soil is filth.
Your plant was eaten by a slug.
The growing point contained a bug.
These aphids are controlled by ants,
Who milk the juice, it kills the plants.
In early spring your garden’s mud.
You walked around! That’s not much good.
With heat and light you hurried it.
The poor plant missed the mountain air;
No heat, no summer muggs up there.
You overfed it 10-10-10.
Forgot to water it again.
You hit it sharply with a hose.
You used a can without a rose.
Perhaps you sprinkled from above.
You should have talked to it with love.
The nursery mailed it without roots.
You killed it with those gardening boots.
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
Deanna Greens and Garden Art 