Garden Blogger's Muse Day for May 2010

That is May, the month I love the most, and when my turn comes to make the world, as surely it will, I shall make make my May ninety days long. December, January, and February shall be allotted ten hours each; I have not finalized my plans for the other months, but none of them shall exceed May.

Jamaica Kincaid in MY GARDEN (BOOK):

I've been rereading Jamaica Kincaid's book and read the above quote yesterday. I still like the words, but the desire for May ran stronger when I lived in a northern city.... here the month to wish for might be April - or even November!
Another quote from this book works wherever one lives:

I have really learned this as a gardener: listen to everyone and then grow the things you love. I have learned as much through my own conceitedness and from my own mistakes as I have from all the great gardeners I have met.
This month, this May - Jamaica- you are my Muse!

Happy May Day, Lei Day, Derby Day and Happy Muse Day at Carolyn's Sweet Home & Garden Chicago blog.

Pierced by Punctuation on Muse Day

"They say every time u use an ! a fairy dies...." Yolanda Elizabet

Usually Thalia, the muse of Comedy, is the inspiration for Muse Day, but this time any younger or more sensitive viewers can blame Yolanda Elizabet and Kate Smudges, whose twitter conversations about the danger of exclamation points made me look for the sketching pencils.
This post is part of Garden Bloggers Muse Day, hosted by Carolyn at the Sweet Home and Garden Chicago blog.

He Saw/She Saw

He Saw/She Saw was written by Annie in Austin for the Transplantable Rose


She said

I love to look across the fountain

At the green and white caladium

Under the tree

It looks so peaceful

In the shade


He said

I like to look across the fountain

Where the chair glows yellow

At the vegetable garden

Where tomatoes grow

In the sunWhat would happen if they switched chairs?


Happy Garden Bloggers Muse Day from Philo and Annie!

Ponds and Poetry

Uncontrolled water in the home garden can be a disaster - water confined and channeled through a water feature can be wonderful. If you're in the mood to see wonderful water features, you're in luck - it's almost time for the annual Austin Pond Society Tour, that special weekend when some of the members invite you into their gardens, demonstrating how Nature and Technology can work together to bring water, sound, plant life and animal life into your own back yard. That's our birdbath full of bluejays in the photo - if just a simple birdbath can get this much action, imagine what a pond could do!

For 2007, the event spans two days and features 30 locations - including a couple that will be open on Saturday night. Mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, July 14th and 15th, 2007. Wristbands are available at the Wildflower Center, Emerald Gardens and Hill Country Water Gardens, and can also be purchased online. You can also get them the day of the tour, but buying ahead can save you a couple of bucks.

Pond Tour Information on the APS website

The Pond Society kindly linked to my posts about last year's tour. We made it to almost all of the Saturday locations - mainly in-town ponds, loaded with ideas for urban and suburban gardeners - but I didn't have the camera with me that day. On Sunday I took photos at some unusual ponds in more rural settings out to the NW of Austin. If you're interested, here are links:

Liberty Hill 2006 One , Liberty Hill 2006 Two, Liberty Hill 2006 Three,

Leander 2006 and the Night Tour

The Pond Society site also has links to photo galleries from several previous tours.

Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago is trying to get a garden muse day going on the first of each month, much as Carol of May Dreams has encouraged us to post flower photos for Garden Blogger Bloom Day on the 15th.

There's also a 'Green Thumb Sunday', a monthly 'Festival of the Trees', and even a 'Wordless Wednesday' going around. My first reaction was that things are getting awfully organized and scheduled in the garden blogging world. I'm starting to feel like an Austin Slacker version of Huckleberry Finn, suspicious that the Widow Douglas is trying to 'sivilize' me and think I'll slope off for the river.

But the idea kind of grew on me, so what the heck - here's a poem for Garden Muse Day. When one of the Muses whispers in my ear, it's seldom Calliope guiding me to epic poetry, or Melpomene leading me to write tragedy. No - the Muse that usually shows up is Thalia, inspiring comedy. Maybe she also inspired me to plant 'Thalia' narcissus, seen in this March photo.

The following rhyme is a few years old. A lot of my garden verse has been set to music with more than a dozen of the songs comprising an in-progress musical comedy copyrighted as Roots in Austin. I've made some of the songs into videos for YouTube - they're linked at left in the sidebar. More videos are in the works, but this little snippet of doggerel doesn't seem to have a musical future - it's slight, and cute, and nerdy in a horticultural way:

CALLA
A long time ago from a silvered movie screen
Came words made immortal by a cinematic queen:
“The calla lilies are in bloom,” said Hepburn in a trance;
At seventeen I knew that I must own these lovely plants.

In Northern lands I nurtured them, rejoicing at one flower.
My rhizomes cellar-dwellers were through winter’s chilling hours.
To Texans they’re less precious - here they’ll live with no protection,
Yet still are waxy, delicate, a chlorophyll confection.

The spathe emerges from the soil; the spadix is concealed.
Soon luminous white, or pearly pink, or yellow is revealed.
Some ask for Zantedeschia, preferring Latin words,

Too many calla flowers? Never! The concept is absurd.

Written by Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Garden Muse Day