Perennial Fever

I spent a good part of my birthday at Skillins Nursery, picking out perennials to add to our front garden. For all that we’ve plunged into on the farm, I still find myself timid when it comes to uprooting plants that came with the house. No matter that phlox has taken over most of the front, or that I’m not terribly fond of the 12-foot-long bed of orange daylilies that runs by the gate. I’ve just felt uneasy tearing out the gardens that someone—several owners and 20 or 30 years ago—worked so hard to create.

Despite the neglect that they’ve suffered over the past few years, the gardens are lovely, organized by height and staggered by season so that something is blossoming from early May to late September. In the spring there are peonies, poppies and ladies’ mantle, shifting towards the summer blooms of iris, roses and cheerful daisies and black-eyed susans. Now, there is an abundance of phlox, some stray echinacea, and a few unidentified purple flowers that seem to multiply exponentially each year.

One day in August, I started weeding, and I was soon overcome with gardening fervor. I’ve never really given much thought to flower gardens, loving cut flowers in the house but preferring vegetables and herbs in the ground. But lately, perhaps because the vegetable garden has gotten so wild this year, I’ve turned my sights to the perennials. It feels optimistic to put things in the ground now, knowing that they won’t bloom until next year, an affirmation of my faith in the future. So the girls and I loaded up the car with bee balm, delphinium, yarrow, and more daisies. We even grabbed a red rose bush, for good measure. A very happy birthday!