Any of you who knows me in person, knows that I have a very limited skill set. My skills mainly involve making programs {I sometimes think this gift/passion of mine must have been a joke when God was bestowing talents on his children because it is probably about the most useless/unappreciated skill in the history of the world}, walking {yep, plain old walking}, and dabbling half-heartedly in pursuits I think I should like, but have a hard time getting into. Sewing, gardening, gourmet cooking, making friends, yoga, papercrafting etc are all among those things that have sparked my interest, then eluded me. I keep hoping that one of these days something will "catch" and I'll find my next fun hobby to get into, but, alas, my efforts thus far have remained rather unsatisfying.
Today I'm going to tell you a little about my efforts at gardening. I love spending time outdoors and I love fresh fruits and veggies, so you'd think that gardening is something I'd be really excited about. But not really. One of the main hurdles I've faced with it, is that the prime hours for gardening (early in the morning before the heat of the day has set in), happens to also be the prime hours for hiking, of which is a part of my day I rarely compromise on. My walking/hiking time is sacred and an integral part of maintaining my physical and mental health--day in, day out, month in, month out. I rarely miss more than a day or two of hiking in a week and when I do, it's usually for a good reason (like being on a cool trip or being sick or something).
So despite my time limitations and lack of passion, I keep trying to plant the darn garden....year after year after year. I almost always plant a little late in the season and I do minimal
upkeep (because there are a million places I'd rather be when it's 95* and sunny outside), but we usually manage at least a meager harvest that, if nothing else, at least about covers the cost of seedlings and dirt that we put into the garden. So that's me. A lazy gardener who takes more after the Little Red Hen's friends than Little Red Hen herself.
Back in Virginia, we had this beautiful pergola on our deck where we'd hang flowers and birdfeeders. Hanging flowers are another love of mine (though we have no place to hang flowers in our current house) and I *usually* was able to keep them alive through the summer, at least in the back of the house, where they could catch the water that fell from the sky without any effort from me. The hanging flowers in front of our house didn't always fare as well, because I actually had to remember to water those. This little corner of the deck was my happy place and I LOVED being able to see it out our kitchen and dining room windows.
See those orange flowers in the pot on our deck? I got those one year and loved the pop of color they brought to our deck. We enjoyed them all season, then they died of natural causes and I just left them alone. I just left the flower pot there {dead parts and all}, assuming I'd plant something new in it the following summer. Then something weird happened.
Without doing a darn thing...literally nothing...they came back to life the next season. And they were just as pretty the second time around.
That original deck picture was taken in 2017. That may have been the year I got them, but, honestly, I have no idea. They've been a part of our summer deck decor for many years now (even through 3 moves) and it's a happy day when they start to blossom again each year and occasionally even blossom twice in a season.
In Pennsylvania, they still grew without effort, but grew in a little funky.
Here in Utah, I have to water them...
But still they come back.
I think they might be tiger lilies, but I call them my Phoenix Phlowers.
PHOENIX: ˈfiːnɪks (in classical mythology) According to ancient legend, the phoenix is a bird that cyclically burns to death and is reborn from its own ashes. For this reason, the phoenix often serves as a symbol of renewal and rebirth.
It's fitting that they're even the color of flames.
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