Bear Paw Meanderings

This is the time of year that I like best. I can watch my garden take off in a flurry of buds of all sorts and I am amazed at what can be done being a plain dirt gardener.

Most impressive this year has been my sweet rocket. It was a flower that grew in alleys and on hillsides in early Havre, planted by women hitting the ground with the dried seed shells of the rocket and having it come up as if my magic. On Clear Creek there are hillsides that are simply filled with rocket which was mostly planted by Mary Ashline and Laened Black.

Imagine my surprise when I found a few seed packets of rocket at a local store. I planted them the first spring I had a garden in Havre. Nothing came up. It was a huge disappointment. But that fall, I was in the garden one day and there was a row of seeds that had sprung up overnight where I planted the rocket. Nothing came up in the other place I had planted it. I remembered hearing that rocket is a biannual, coming up every other year. Well, the next spring I had a lot of sweetly perfumed rocket just where I had wanted it in the garden and that fall the other rocket I had planted came up so that now, I have rocket every year but in different places. It is showy and wonderful and makes the whole yard smell like a flower store.

I have a large peony patch as well and just now the peonies are coming up, mostly red and white but there are some huge blooms that are both red and white and they are wonderful.

Lupine comes up in three colors in my yard and I always think I am going to lose it over the winter but it continues to grow yearly. It is blue, red and yellow.

Then there are the Maltese crosses which are bright red and very showy. I got the seed from the Maltese crosses in front of Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier. This flower has almost taken over one whole area of the garden. There are plenty of cone flowers, a huge population of sage, lilies and mother planted three lily trees one year which come up yearly.

In the middle of the garden I planted five spruce trees which I wanted to turn into a hedge separating the annual part of the garden from the perennial part of the garden but they are so beautiful I cannot touch them.

A couple of weeks ago, I planted a rosemary patch, 30 zinnias and 20 dahlias and now other than watering and weeding, the garden is once again complete for the season.

I have a bench out at the garden. Often I go out and just sit and gaze in wonder at what the Good Lord has wrought in my back yard!