Hidden potential… peak potential… whatever.

There’s one thing for certain in Trent Gardens this year. There is no danger of peaking too soon. The peak of bloom may be more of a hillock of bloom this year. Since the majority of the plants in the drive and streetside gardens were daylilies and I am determined to end the practice of supplying a buffet of deer favorites every July, the daylilies are out and I’m pretty much starting from scratch. It’s about 120 feet of garden and that’s a lotta dirt. A few hundred dollars of perennials went in the space yesterday and it still looks mighty bare. Another trunk load of annuals came home with me after browsing through four local garden centers. Those may get set in the ground today if I can overcome the fatigue from the spring cold I’ve been nursing. There’s a dozen or so containers of winter sown things that need to be transplanted and planned trips to a few less local plant nurseries this week. The end of all this will still be something like 200 new perennials and a similar amount of annuals that will get love and attention, fertilizer and water for the next few months. All that said, I can’t imagine that they will actually show a lot more than great promise by the time fall is on the horizon.

So this year I’m looking at the peak season as an indicator of peak potential for next year. That is what gardening is often about – next season. In the meantime… I am enjoying the challenge and fully enjoying my lack of anxiety over what happens next.