Patience and Prayer

In the fall of 2018 I removed the overgrown and almost overwhelming crape myrtles that had been planted along our front walk when we bought this house. I probably would not have removed them then either, if my younger son had not noticed that they were diseased. Removing them opened up my front yard wonderfully. I can now grow grass in the area between the planting bed along the walk and the garage side of the house. But I knew I needed to put something in to replace those myrtles that would have some height, and color to them. I bought three tiny, tiny pink dogwoods and two fall/winter flowering camellias. Some attrition is always expected when planting anything I suppose. One of the three dogwoods looked pretty dubious when it arrived (I had ordered my trees on-line). But I hoped, and prayed that it would still manage to succeed. It didn't and had to be removed last spring, too late to replace it with another pink dogwood. I fed, watered, and, yes, even prayed over my remaining two trees and the camellias. The latter grew well last year and the bushes were loaded with lovely blooms well into the late winter. I was still uncertain about the two remaining dogwoods. They seemed pretty fragile and did not have many leaves last year. This spring they are both putting out a lot of leaves, and the stronger of the two has blessed me with this one dogwood bloom. I love the color. It's even prettier than I had expected. I will feed, water, and pray over them again this growing season and hope that next spring I will be rewarded for my patience, prayers, and care. The viburnum along the front of the porch has finally decided to show off its ability to bloom, too, after I had just about given up hope of seeing anything close to real blooms on them. I love looking through gardening catalogues and planning what to buy and plant, but I have often been disappointed and discouraged. I am pretty good with houseplants. But there are so many variables in outdoor plant care that I am just now beginning to understand. I might be categorized as a "late bloomer" in this respect because I lived for over 40 years in the midst of deep woods where any attempt at a real lovely and manicured yard was impossible between the deer and the trees, not to mention the soil that was more rock than soil. I'm still dealing with a lot of clay, but I am seeing the promise of better things ahead. I still need to be patient and definitely not forget to pray, too.