A Week-long Series On Gardening, Landscaping, and Money
As a result of some exterior stuff (bad week), I had some blog block today. I did what any self-respecting twenty-something would do: I called Mom.
You know, for someone who has never really grown much plantwise, talking to her made me realize I actually have had some successful attempts. In particular, with bushes.
I have always liked bushes. I have a vivid memory of discovering a flowering bush in a small forest behind my childhood home. I cut a flower and brought it to my mom. We’ve since attributed this bush to something my grandmother had planted before she died… Perhaps something she wanted us to just find later (I mean, why else put it in the middle of a forest, right?). Every year, multiple times a summer, I went back to the bush to check on it and brought my mom a flower from it after it bloomed. I marveled at how it would grow, with little sunlight in bad soil, without me having to do anything to it. I used to think it was a miracle.
Fast forward to adulthood where I decide to attempt to garden for the first time. I love hydrangeas but when I couldn’t find one at the Vinalhaven store, I had to improvise. What is an easy bush to grow? (I asked around.) Try a butterfly bush, everyone said. And try I did. I dug a bed at my old Vinalhaven house and anchored the plot with a big ol’ butterfly bush. I did nothing to it except weed and water and it grew. I bet it’s still flowering in front of that little house now. And let me tell you, if something can grow on Vinalhaven, it’ll probably grow a lot of other places, too.
So bushes are not only hearty but pretty and often perennial. You can cut flowers for a bouquet on a table or just sleep with your windows open and breathe in…
So try a butterfly bush, a hydrangea, or even a bleeding heart bush (they play nice with hostas, bonus!). They are fairly inexpensive ($5-$40), are guarenteed to grow year after year, easy to maintain, and pretty looking and smelling.
I’m pro-bush, but only in the plant way. Have you had any luck with bushes (as in with plants, not people)?