Friday, January 9, 2015

My Indoor Winter Garden

Good morning my sweet friend!

I never had a green thumb at all.  Though I post photos on here of lush landscapes, that is all the Lord not me....I get involved in too many projects to always remember to water faithfully (which is actually a benefit if you grow orchids in moss).   Truly.  I am not a natural gardener, but there is a tender little place in my heart that is often touched beyond reason by a growing thing.

For example, when we were in Alaska, I kept a little gardenia by my computer.  You know, my dear friend, that winter and dark are hard on me, and finding a gardenia in a local nursery was a Godsend.

One day I had been in town and my son told me on the phone that my gardenia had bloomed.  I was pleased and thanked him for the information.  When I came home, I took one look at that flower and burst into tears.  SOBBING tears, shuddering, gasping, choking tears.  Everyone was surprised, including me! :)  Even then the rational part of my brain was thinking "What on EARTH??" while my heart broke wide in two and out flowed salt water down my cheeks.

Grandmother's roses, a "first-real-dance" carnation, a magnolia tree that delighted at a relative's house....all these are little growing parts of our souls. There is something about nature that we crave, that we need.  Indeed when I look at all those beautiful homes in Veranda or Southern Living or when I watch tv, my eye is drawn to the windows and what plants are growing outside, if it is summer or spring or winter.

One thing I love to have inside my house is what I call my Winter Garden.   I stash interesting plants here and there, tender trees that cannot survive the cold, such as my plumeria, some begonias that I have been growing through winters, etc.

They are all kind of leggy and scrawny and "more-or-less greenish", but they make me happy...

ESPECIALLY when one of them starts to bear fruit, like my Meyer Lemon!
I am not sure if the fruit will survive, but the joy of seeing a plant actually GROW is tremendously exciting to me :)  It makes me want to be a better gardener and thankful to the Lord for an indoor summer :)













No comments:

Post a Comment