saturday in the garden...

hello dears, 

today i thought i'd take you on a little tour of my garden.  i've spent a lot of time working on it.

this is the first summer that i can remember clearly being able to work in the garden consistently.  i've spent a lot of time cleaning it out from last year's overgrowth, amending the soil, planting as many things as i love as i could find, mulching, putting in pavers, trimming trees, weeding, etc.

the garden is a never-ending work in progress, just like me.  i love being out there (when the humidity isn't turning the air into chunky soup), checking on my plant babies, adding more plants, weeding, pruning, picking flowers to bring inside, just all the things gardens need.

they say the best weed repellent is a gardener's shadow.  mine has been working hard, let me tell you.

well...here you go, some of these are from yesterday and a few are from last week (i think).

yesterday's sky...

last year, she was mother of tomatoes.  this year she is goddess of the gardens...  i try to pick flowers to offer her every day.  

my hoya plant hanging in the crepe myrtle.  i've never seen a hoya bloom, before.  i'm quite excited by this.

this plant is quite a surprise.  it started as an experiment and i didn't really expect anything.  i had a large piece of ginger root and saw somewhere on the interwebs that you can plant it and it would grow.  well... we'll see how it does, but so far so good.

a lot of growing things.  unfortunately, my cucumbers (that started out fantastically) came under attack of cucumber beetles and no matter what i did i couldn't get rid of them.  so, i had to pull out what was left of the plants.  i'm not sure what i can plant in that pot now, so it's just empty.

did i tell you about the butterfly garden i started?  there is a section in the "common property" behind my house that was just a mess of dirt.  the new landscapers only mow with the giant riding things and so they are rarely back there and never tend to that section.  i had 4 milkweed plants and i know they are spreaders, so i kind of blocked off the mud/dirt area, added a ton of planting mix and topsoil and mulch and then planted my rue and the 4 milkweeds.  i also had a bunch of packets of flowers for polinators, so i sprinkled those out there and added parsley and fennel (for the swallowtails).  well, those plants are doing great, and most of the seeds came up, with some even blooming.

borage is one of the plants and sunflowers (but only one sunflower has come up and will bloom soon).  i plan to add a bit more, since it is a hill area, i'm building a natural fence at the base - which backs up to the wooded area - using found limbs and the yellow-belle (forsythia) that is growing there. i layered in a bunch of downed tree limbs and am weaving the long pieces of forsythia through.  we'll see how it goes.

over in the flower bed, the pink zinnias are just so gorgeous.  the echinacea bloomed well as did the black-eyed susans and the salvia.  

well...that's a brief tour of the garden.  i haven't had as much veg to pick as i'd hoped, but i did get a late start planting this year due to all the cleanup.  it's still fun!

how are things growing in your neck of the woods?

thanks for stopping in for a read...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

cards for september...

hello, my lovelies...

and hello, September...

the brrrs are finally here and i am so thrilled.

i'll jump right in today with the card pull for the collective for this month...

two cards came up today, the two of cups and the empress.

this month, pay special attention to your self-care.  not the kind hyped by the wellness industry or magazines and social media.  sure, have a spa day if you feel like, get that pedicure or haircut.  it is certainly a way to give yourself a treat.

this kind of self-care is deeper.  it is about how you talk to yourself, how you care for yourself, how you love yourself.  this month, give yourself the kind of love you give your beloveds.  the kind of care you would give to an ill child.  

watch the words you use when you speak to or about yourself.  are they loving words or are you putting yourself down?  think about it this way, how would you tend to the love of your life?

mmhhmmm...that has you thinking, doesn't it.  well, guess what?

YOU are the love of your life, and if you aren't, you should be.  without loving ourselves are we really ready and able to love someone else properly?

so... give yourself a hug, put on some funky music and dance with yourself, wear your favorite dress/suit/whathaveyou, even if you aren't going anywhere, take yourself on a picnic in the park or in your back garden.

in tending to yourself, you also need to ask, am i nourished?  am i rested? have i taken on too much this month? 

before industry took over, when the world was mostly agricultural, the brr months (in the northern hemisphere) were a time to get settled in for winter, to finish the harvest and nestle in for a good rest before the next growing season began.  

we don't do that anymore...rest, that is.  we don't take time to smooth out and recuperate from the go, go, go of the spring and summer months.

now we are expected to be social and go to all the parties of the winter holidays, bake and cook all the things, shop for all the gifts, entertain everyone we know.

not this year, my lovelies.  if you are going to do those things, take september to gather your reserves, to make your plans so that you aren't running full steam through to next spring.  we can't give more than we have, so love yourself enough to rest and nourish yourself.

love yourself with all your heart, my lovelies, and you will find life is so much easier to bear.

the more we love ourselves, the more love we have to share with the world and the more love we share with the world, the better the world will be.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

deck used Rider Tarot (also known as Rider-Waite), artwork by Pamela Coleman Smith.