Food Gone Wild

Our neighbor Rosemary has a sense of style and color that is totally captivating. She wears blue dyed Doc Martens, has fairytale princess hair the color of rust and copper and fire mixed together, her home is filled with brilliant accents and splashes of color, and her garden could best be described as a cross between English cottage garden and lush Maine jungle. The garden is lush and wild, yet perfect for a stroll or quiet contemplation. Tall flowers, varied beds and planters, a grove of roses, swimming pool, several resident snakes, all surrounded by a weathered wooden fence with each picket capped with a terracotta pot.

While some gardeners strive for orchestrated rows of uniform plants, symmetrically composed layouts, and perfectly trimmed foliage, Rosemary’s garden reflects her pure delight in watching what plants do when left to their own devices. One of Rosemary’s pleasures lies in seeing what happens when a normally edible plant is left to thrive and flourish past the typical harvest cycle.

The carrot (left) and parsnip (right) here prove themselves to be quite compelling in their mature states and both have lovely flowers and add unexpected beauty to the garden.

I enjoy this type of observational gardening as well …. I grew a red leaf lettuce to six feet tall this Spring on my patio, just to see how far it would go if I let it. (lettuce is to the right of the poppies in the photo )