I did get caught up, alas, yet happily, in the work of Ryan Gainey/Brooks Garcia/David Bennett McMullin . A trinity of FABULOUS, their work inspired, and I needed to 'go there'. .
Preparing for an open garden (High Museum), the MATRIARCHAL EPIPHANY arrived, "Why copy the gardens of 'those guys' ?"
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Thus arrived LEAF LITTER MULCH.
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By the end of the day, exhausted-bruised-bloody (you know....gardening), I perused my garden & inexplicably began to cry. Big tears. Deep sobs.
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I was seeing the gardens of my MATRIARCHS; they used leaf litter mulch. My grandmothers, long dead, yet in that moment of epiphany, both held me.
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The missing component, LEAF LITTER MULCH, was so simple.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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I took the pic in Ireland at Helen Dillon's garden. In addition to leaf litter mulch matriarchal gardening is: tough plants, proper soil prep, no chemicals, no irrigation system, little expense, little time, little to no turf..........living incredibly busy lives. Mentor, Mary Kistner, began gardening in earnest after her beloved husband died. He didn't believe in ornamental gardening. Amazing, yes? A man would stop a woman from ornamental gardening. Hers is not the only story in this vein. Most are from earlier eras but some aren't. Also learned about proper soil preparation from my matriarchs..........the 'guys' at the Extension Service were wrong. More about that tomorrow.
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Loving the movie, To Sir With Love, Puppet Barbuda honors her trinity of FABULOUS guys. They gave her the MATRIARCHAL EPIPHANY. Hope you have time to visit their links.
4 comments:
I have that in my garden. I will photograph it for you. It is raining today. Rather dark. And chilly. When the grackles come back and land in the leaf litter mulch is when I shall photograph it.
Too funny, in my new garden today I decided to use mulched leaves for all my new flower beds. An acre of hardwoods makes for tons of mulch. All a part of the REBEL movement.
I, too, like leaf litter. Because it's so windy in Kansas I like to run them through my shredder. I use so much limestone in my raised beds that I welcome oak leaves and pine needles. I often top off these areas with the coffee grounds I save in my freezer! Getting to neutral never smelled so good!
Leaf litter. When it piles in the curbs- I take the rake and a big trash can our front before the street sweeper rushes them away. It's like my neighbors are sending free mulch):-
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