Last April, Keeyla stopped by the house as she often sometimes does to say hi and share what's new in her life. She walked around the garden and said, "Wow Megan, the garden looks really great. You should do the tour again next year".
As Keeyla mentioned, our garden was on the Park Day Garden Tour when I was 5 months pregnant with Lucy and Park Day was a future dream for our daughter. About two years earlier I had found my way to Keeyla through a magazine cover that featured her front yard garden. I fell in love with that garden and wanted one of my very own. I was a novice gardener at the time, having only room for potted plants and herbs in past apartments and I had desperately wanted a real garden. When we bought our little house in Temescal, putting in a garden was a top priority for me. Along came Keeyla who opened my eyes wide as far what a garden could be and created our little oasis in the heart of the city. Over the years, I would watch Keeyla work, study her plantings, and take note of everything she had to tell me about plants and gardening. I took all those "Keeyla Lessons" and did my very best to translate them into our own garden, so there was a jolt of personal pride when Keeyla voiced her thoughts about the tour. I had worked particularly hard on the garden that fall and it did look really nice, actually it looked beautiful...
...which is not how it looks now at the beginning of October and if your garden is going to be on the Park Day Garden Tour, there is a lot of work to do. I'm a Producer and I create tasks list every day at work. It's in my nature. I have lists for everything. After Keeyla and I met to discuss ideas for the garden, I put all the plans and to dos and dates into Excel for tracking.
A Partial List of Fall Tasks:
Order Bulbs (done)
Dig up the front beds and replace with new soil
Pot up Iris (Apparently if you leave this until after Oct they won't bloom as well)
Prune back everything HARD...but don't prune the roses until Jan.
November Nursery Trip (I love going to the nurseries with Keeyla)
Repaint front pots. Maybe butterscotch and cranberry.
Yes, lot's to do...but time spent in the garden is some of the best time spent anywhere...
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Keeyla and Megan,
I am looking forward to the new garden you are creating. Post lots of pictures. And Keeyla, we met last year, when you invited me and two friends to your garden after I introduced myself to you at breakfast at Cafe Fanny. I'm the one from Idaho where your turquoise stone originated. I just realized, the other day, we have a whole bed that is mulched with turqoise gravel (at the Idaho Botanical Garden). I will send you a photo.
Waiting on pins and needles for your new book. I have a review copy coming from Timber the minute it is off the press!
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