Thursday, March 25, 2010

Johnny-jumps-up in the Garden

Johnny-jump-ups (Viola spp.) and foxgloves volunteer in abundance out in the vegetable garden. But i don't want them to grow there, i want vegetables to grow in the vegetable garden. I want foxgloves to grow in a flowerbed next to the house. I've tried transplanting them there, but i can tell they're not truly happy--they don't return the next year.

This is just your garden-variety dukkha (stress): things don't happen like you want them to.

Then i tried transplanting the foxgloves in a shady bed where a pine tree used to grow. By June i had a pinky-purple velvet spiky garden of foxgloves that i looked at every time i walked out the front door.

The violas i transplanted under a hemlock tree. They've already started blooming and will continue to jump and shout until they trip over their own legginess and fall down in a heap in mid-summer. But for the next 3 months i'll have a throng of johnny-jump-ups brightening a shady corner of the garden with their miniature pansy faces.

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