Flower gardens are not a frivolous use of space: although they don’t feed human bellies, our native flowers in particular provide butterflies, bumblebees, and birds with the nectar and seeds they need for the high octane requirements of flight.
I can scarcely bring myself to sit in front of the computer during the summer months. I could just sit in front of the garden, however, for hours and hours, soaking up the sun, listening to the birds yodel, watching the butterflies flutter and the bumblebees waggle, thinking deep, deep nothings.
As far as we’re concerned, the only creations on earth more fascinating than junk are flowers, and so Lucky Find Salvage Company has a large collection of old gardening books, some of which are shown on this page. The best one on the shelves is called The New Garden Encyclopedia, first published by Wise and Company in 1936. It’s illustrated with great BW photos and line drawings, has an answer for all of your gardening questions, and was very pro-wildflower naturalization long before the slogan “Grow Native!” swept the lower Midwest. Buy yourself one of these tomes on eBay today, it’s a must-have for the curious gardener.
For a change of scene from your own backyard or window-box, here’s a great place to see flowers during the blooming months: pioneer cemeteries. Pack up a Plaid Picnic, strap on your Red, Blue, and Yellow Calico halter, and hit the road for Illinois, which has a large concentration of these graveyards full of dead settlers and remnant prairie. Click here for a great article by Dave Ambrose on the subject, Tombstones and Tallgrass.
This Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is a hummingbird magnet.
Page Eleven, Issue Ten
Flower Gardens
