No luxurious house, but a luxuriant garden

Luxurious conveys the ideas of comfort and indulgence.  Luxuriant implies vigorous or rich growth; a luxuriant garden is a lush one; as luxurious to luxury, so luxuriant to exuberance.  We do not have a luxurious house, but a luxuriant garden.

These photos of tomato and Taiwanese pumpkin (台灣南瓜) gardens were taken in not quite a month apart, attesting my claim of a luxuriant garden.

6/28/2013

6/15/2013

With garden work consumed all my spare time, I can hardly have time writing garden post, let alone other topic.  I will talk about Shakespeare’s use of ‘luxurious’ as this post will be labeled ‘language’, too.
In Act IV Scene 3 of Macbeth, Malcolm, trying to test the loyalty  (to Scotland) of Macduff, talks about himself, referring himself as a third person, using all negative characters to describe himself, implying he is not fit to be the king.

Malcolm (to Macduff):
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name.

In this case, ‘luxurious’ means lecherous, sensual or lascivious. 

The Bard also use ‘luxurious’ for the same meaning in Act IV Scene 1 of Mcuh Ado About Nothing,

Claudio:

She knows the heat of a luxurious bed,

Her blush is guiltness, not modesty.

6/27/2013

The tomatoes in our garden come in ♥ shape

“I ♥ KATY” is not the only area one sees ♥ in our garden, tomatoes also come in ♥ shape.  These “ox heart” variety tomatoes are chosen not by their heart shape, but by the taste.  We’re not going after the ‘heart’; we’re going after the ‘stomach’ in this case.

 

 

 

 

 

Common looking impatiens are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them

Most of the flowers/veggies thrive on the sun singing praise of “you’re my sunshine” in our garden.  Those unfortunate ones under the shade of others languish or even wither.  Exceptions are impatiens and begonia; they found their shady places under the peach and plum trees in our garden.

Last Friday (June 21) there was an article (“Impatiens are withering, and some say it’s about time”) in the Wall Street Journal that began on the front page.  It was a news article reporting the ongoing widespread impatiens blight that has involved 33 states including Pennsylvania.  The article was written in a lighthearted way, taking a wary mind off the troubled water in the Wall Street.

Some gardeners treat impatiens with contempt; they are “ubiquitous, boring and not all that pretty”, “withery and wimpy”; they may be colorful, yet plain; some impatiens-haters even say the blight is “a blessing in disguise”.

We do have exotic flowers/beauties in our garden, but a garden without the omnipresent impatiens is incomplete.  Let me paraphrase Lincoln, “Common looking impatiens are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.” (Of course, Lincoln said “common looking people”.)

 

begonia & impatiens in the shade

Love is not ostentatious

“I ♥ KATY” are built by French marigolds, which tend to be frilly with graceful dark green foliage; Katy’s favorite.  They are chosen mainly for their slow and steady growth, so is the love.

They are surrounded by many more showy or even flamboyant flowers (celosia, snapdragon, salvia, dianthus, lantana, dahlia, calendula, geranium and other marigold.)  Many have been the residents of our garden in previous seasons, such as celosia—they are all old friends and ‘old flame’ in case of celosia; lantana is the new comer.

The design doesn’t violate the principle of love; love is not ostentatious.

6/22/2013

celosia--'old flame'

snapdragon

snapdragon

dahlia

salvia

lantana

dianthus

geranium--pink

geranium--red

marigold

calendula--bon bon orange

6/22/2013

Roses in full bloom, not intimidated

Flanked on both sides by various vivacious and gorgeous flowers, these roses—queen of the flower—are not intimidated; they have been in full bloom.  No wonder Shakespeare mentioned roses more than 70 times in his plays.



6/21/2013

6/20/2013

The building of the Boulevard of Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢大道)

Walking into the garden from the back porch, one enters the Boulevard of Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢大道), so named as it is built by the red stepping stones and also to remind me to read Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢); I read both the Chinese and English versions to learn the translation. 

The Boulevard of Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢大道) is not yet beautiful, but if you are like us gardeners, you’ll see the beauty is in the making.  Seeing one photo that was taken on 3/23/13, one can appreciate there has been much labor of love; it has come a long way.

紫園—Purple Garden

I call a small section of our garden 紫園 (Purple Garden) as everything happens to be purple by chance, not by design.  There are delphinium, purple basil (still baby one) and one unknown flower—we call it ‘purple flower’ (may be garden phlox). 

English “Purple Garden” sounds ordinary and plain, but Chinese 紫園 has an air of being noble, sublime, exultant and royal.

 

Lingering beauty: a peony in June

As we know peonies bloom in May, but there will always be some lingering beauty.

The peonies in our front yard have come and gone; this gorgeous one in the garden waited to charm Jo last weekend. This was the one greeted Jo when she was visiting, along with Sean, Gloria, Tom, Ben and Gabby. If one cannot be inspired by this delicate beauty to write a poem, one is not a poet.

Ben is the watering officer

Ben is the watering officer of the garden; he took his job seriously.  He learned how to use the watering system that has various water hoses covering different sections.  Of course, he also ‘watered’ Gabby when she came by in her walk in the garden; Ben claimed it was an “accident”—a well-aimed one.

A walk in the garden

When Ben and Gabby came home to charm us last week; Gabby’s favorite was a walk in the garden, she would walk the endless walkways again and again, occasionally stopping to admire the flowers along the way.  She even jumped the step stones that are not placed together in the Katy’s Vineyard where the home of the Taiwanese pumpkins is.  She also took a break to watch Ben watering.

Taiwanese pumpkins come earlier every year

It was deep into the summer when we saw Taiwanese pumpkins last year; Katy has spotted nearly 10 so far when the summer is still so young.

6/6/2013

6/6/2013

5/30/2013

“I ♥ KATY” is still evolving

The design of “I ♥ KATY” is still evolving; it is no longer an ‘empty’ heart (空心).

6/5/13

6/5/13

6/5/13