Blooming through adversity

 

Petunias coming up between
the bricks in our front walk

From the Garden

Every summer I fill my colorful planters with an assortment of geraniums, sweet potato vines, petunias, cosmos or cleome for height, dracaena, variegated periwinkle, or whatever catches my fancy when I'm at the farm. Then I arrange the pots on the front stoop. 

I try to deadhead the spent blooms in order to encourage the plants to put up more flowers, and not to put their energy into making seed heads. However, seed heads do form in spite of my best efforts. 

Sometimes if you don't deadhead, you get some self sowing happening in the garden. Don't always be too quick to pull a weed until you know if it really is a weed, or the start of something worth having. Gosh doesn't that sound like some good advice for living. How many times are we faced with something that we don't recognize right away and decide to avoid it rather than letting the experience unfold? Learning to recognize the sprouting of something good versus something bad comes with experience. The longer you garden the better you are at recognizing emerging leaves, and the longer you live the better you get at understanding challenges that arise. 

This beautiful patch of petunias, grew through the adversity of my brick walkway. Somehow the tiny seeds managed to fall between the seams and make it to the soil lodged in between the bricks. In spite of this summer's drought they managed to get enough water to germinate and grow. There was a balance of sun and shade so that the tiny buds didn't burn and wither. And the luck to have a gardener who recognized them for what they were, or was too busy with other chores to notice them right away. 

In the end it doesn't matter what it was that led to this happy outcome, only that it did happen and that I celebrated the moment. Now I can share it with you. Life is a challenge. There will be good days and bad days. We mature, we grow, we bud, we might be cut down, but no matter what we keep trying. Find joy everyday! It might be something small like a flower growing up through a crack, but recognizing it and being grateful for it can make all the difference.

Petal Power Collage
Magazine scraps, washi tape, and vintage buttons.