Mid June, Already

finding your favorite snips and finally planting the garden

snipping sage to hang dry in the little house a few summers ago

I opened a box yesterday and found my Japanese flower scissors. It was a bit of a surprise, as it wasn’t a logical box for them to be packed in, according to the sharpie words hastily scrawled across it, but you know how it is on day-who-knows-how-many of packing, when the moving truck is arriving soon, and you just begin to toss whatever is still loose and knocking around into a box and tape it shut.

So, I unpacked the shears. And just in time because my rosemary topiaries are looking wild and ready for a trim. Just in time because there are the sweetest smelling wildflowers that I’ve yet to learn the names of, blooming right now on a hill beside the house, and wouldn’t they be perfect in my tiny pottery pot? Just in time because summer is here and can you really garden, even half-barrel garden, without a good pair of snips?

Oh, and that half-barrel garden? After considering just how and where it would be incorporated into the landscape here, after being sure we’d landed on the right idea only to stop last minute and swing the plan around entirely once more, we’ve finally, finally decided that it’ll be a half barrel patio garden. There’s simply no time to have it any other way. The barrels will sit in clusters around the patio that surrounds three sides of Pond House. There's something so endearing about this look! And neither you or I will be one bit surprised when I sneak in even more pots of varying sizes among the barrels, too, now will we?

This is our project for the weekend. And thank goodness because it’s already mid June and I simply cannot let the growing season go on without me. Here’s to late spring garden planting, perseverance, hope, and finding your favorite pair of garden shears.