The Ides of May

     The Ides of May have passed.  Safe.  Safe at last.  The one thing--the only thing--the weather geniuses have gotten right every year since I made Iten Acres my home is the frost date.  No more frost after May 15th (at least until late fall anyway).  What does that mean for the labor force at the Acres?  No more covering things at night for one thing.  But more importantly in the beauty department--I can now plant annuals.  All my poor pots that have been sitting waiting to play their role in the loveliness of the grounds now get their chance.  I think I may have about fifty of them--all different sizes and even a few different colors.  Now, they are decorated.
     Being naturally paranoid, I usually wait until about the 20th to go flower shopping.  My favorite place is Baker's Acres, but I have not been able to go there since Mom arrived.  They're just too far away.  I couldn't leave her alone for as long as it would take to go there, shop, and come home--at least five hours round trip with the meandering through their flowers.  They have more variety by far than anyone else around here.  Ahhh well, perhaps another spring unless Mom outlives me.  You never know.  Anyway, second choice is Oakland Park Nursery in Delaware.  It takes a couple of hours to go there even, shop, and return.
     First priority is the "container garden" outside Mom's window on the patio where she loves to spend her mornings.  Her favorites are marigolds, geraniums, lantana, and petunias.  She already had several glorious containers of dianthus and pinks that had survived the warm winter--red, white, and pink everywhere.  I also had already planted some pansies for her and a knockout red rose.  Now, she has the entire "painting."  Naturally, I added a few of my favorites:  snapdragons, verbena, dahlias, begonia.  In a couple of weeks, it will be gorgeous.  Not that Mom isn't easy to please.  She even thinks dandelions are beautiful.  If only we all could see beauty everywhere we look--even at the weeds of life.  I also planted a couple of "surprises" in her garden--calla lilies.  I like surprises.  I can't wait until they come up!  (But I guess I'll have to.)
     I also have "gardens" on the back patio, by the canopy, by the bird bath in The Conifer Bed.   And I have pots scattered everywhere--by the pond, by the "doghouse," by the treeline, and, would you believe it, in the trees, in the meadow, and even in the wild area.  "You can't have too much beauty" is the motto of Iten's Acres.  Well, one of them anyway.
    The nice thing about annuals is that once you plant them they bloom the rest of the spring, summer, and fall.  They have no season like the perennials that have a "time" for blooming and then stop.  And they keep getting larger and larger as the year goes on; more and more lovely.  And many of them are propagators.  They seed themselves and come back next year all on their own.  (That's one of the reasons I don't mulch much.  I'll endure some weedy gardens for more flowers.)  I don't even have to plant cosmos, morning glories, or larkspur anymore if I can help it. (I can't always help it.)  They have become annual perennials. 

                       "Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of these." 
   
 Aren't you glad you worship a God who loves the beautiful?