The lure of landscape architecture

Every once in a while I think I should train for some other career besides writing (as if somehow that would cure me) and a few years back I had the bright idea to study landscape architecture. I was not put off by the fact that I sneeze and get watery in the eyes if I spend too much time (translation: more than an hour) outdoors, but when I got my package from the university of my choice and read the course requirements, I went, chastened, back to my keyboard.

One thing I did learn during my brief passion was that it is important to plan for flowers to be blooming at different times in a perennial garden, so there's always interest somewhere. And darned if I didn't manage to pull that off, in spite of myself!

No sooner did the big atomic-style bellflowers stop blooming last week, but the baby ones got into the act:


and then this plant I don't remember the name of sprouted up some tiny and delicate blossoms (so tiny and delicate you have to click on the image to see them):


and the white-blooming hosta got going:


along with the white hydrangeas, bless them - they'll bloom for the rest of the summer (and hopefully go on filling in the empty space):


Even my astilbe, the one I managed not to kill in its first year in the garden and then transplanted into this little crossroads, is putting on some colour.


So - I never got the degree, but I got a nice garden to write in. Maybe I'll do some of that today!