Happy Convergence on Sunday

This is where I spent my Sunday: digging in the dirt, expanding on that idea for a Secret Garden right here in the middle of the city. The weather was perfect – warm but not too warm. Sunny. And in the company of …

… this friend, who arrived with her own shovel, pick-ax (!), and soil-sifting screen, I tackled the rocky soil that has been so off-putting. (She covered her face when I brought out the camera. I needed some documentation that she’d been here and thus a visual compromise was reached.)

Here’s what Anonymous Friend unearthed:

There were 3 half-circles of stone, set in a row, set deep enough to hide 4″ below the surface of the lawn. We never came across the fourth half, but it’s bound to be here somewhere.

It was hard to appreciate all of the little improvements made in the past 12 months. And then I came across this before photo:

And here’s what we had by the end of this past Sunday afternoon:

The stone semi-circles make perfect garden elements. That furry tall green thing on the left is a pink cosmos that grew like crazy this past summer. Same 6-pak flat of seedlings that produced 5 other 24-inchers. And this one has a stalk the size of a small tree! I kind of hate to say ‘good-bye’ to it.

I tend to hold off getting into the dirt until the plan is conceived, the drawing is done, and I think I know exactly how it is going to look. But none of that formality for Anonymous Friend! She comes at it from a completely different approach: dig in and figure it out as you go. So with her edger we marked off a huge U-shape and got digging. The results make me feel as though the yard/garden is at last becoming that outdoor retreat-like space of my dreams. Stay tuned!