Quarantine Gardening: Ikebana

Of the both of us, my husband is the avid gardener though I was the one who introduced him to gardening. It started with the flower bed below right at the front door of our tiny condo. When I first dated my husband, there was ivy in this box, which we one day decided to pull out. I had the hubs accompany me to Home Depot to pick up a bag of soil and redwood compost, brought it home, ripped and dug and amended the clay soil into crumbly loam. I think it was this project that led to his interest in gardening which later turned into walks to and exploration of the community garden down the street from us, and then waiting a few years on a list before being able to rent our own vegetable patch. I love the bounty of tomatoes and lettuces and squashes and potatoes and aliums and other produce from that plot. Patrick still pretty much takes care of the flower and vegetable gardening though during this pandemic, I've been also deadheading and planting more blooms. It's so Zen.

I've also been arranging flowers or viewing and appreciating the blooms that Patrick brings home or that I snip from my containers. Below is "Big Dahlia" from our vegetable patch and her two handmaidens, "Hydrangea 1" and "Hydrangea 2" whom I snipped from my container gardening.

Just like John Ruskin said, "Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity."