Lawn order

On the scale of plantmanship, I am somewhere between Jessica and Kelly: I do know what zone I'm in. My newly tilled beds are like blank pages to fill. My fantasies are of trips to Niche Gardens and UPS persons delivering orders from Woodlanders. In reality, the Lady in Red hydrangea is wilting, the heirloom azaleas that the contractors mistakenly pulled up might not survive, and the cover of leaves in just the past couple of days has obscured the new beds almost completely. The first killing frost will not entirely disappoint: in winter come nursery catalogues.


"Inland Sea," by Virginia Gibbons, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Sculpture Show 2006