FOTD – April 22 – WILDING

It’s good for the environment and it’s a whole lot easier to maintain. It makes the birds and the woodchucks happy. It entices the deer to come and chow down on the hydrangeas — not my best gardening moment, but I get it. Everything needs a good meal.

And then, there are the coyotes who howl in the driveway next to our front gate and the baby raccoons of yesteryear who have grown to big healthy raccoons.

Few raccoons live long enough to get that big. I’m pretty sure it’s the food we feed them or, more to the point, the food they snag.

We have let both front and backyards go wild — or nearly wild. We cut it down once, sometimes twice a year because otherwise, we can’t navigate the yard because the long grass wraps around our feet and if you are me, you fall down.

I think the little dark red leaves are the beginning of the wild strawberries or possibly, more little purple flowers. They grow in great abundance. This flowering is about three weeks earlier than last year and almost a full month earlier than two years ago.

I should also point out that it is much harder to photograph a wild garden than a tame one. The flowers don’t line up and the grass is too long. I think it’s worth it for a lot of very good reasons, but it’s a very different garden and with each passing year, it gets wilder. Also, more interesting.

Categories: #Flowers, #FOTD, #Photography, Cee's Photo Challenge, Flower of the day, wildflowers

Tags: #Flowers, #Photography, Marilyn Armstrong, violets, wildflowers, wilding the garden