Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Daily Diary, Day 1221:
Perhaps, because in San Diego we have hit the season when there are the fewest blooms, I was particularly struck by a post about gardening I read this week in one of the newsletters I get. The author of the post is actually on maternity leave, so the post was something she had published elsewhere, but I really found it interesting, on many different levels.
Those of you who have followed me over time should know by now that my knowledge about plants is abysmal, and that my attitude about gardening is generally laissez-faire, starting with the landscaping that existed when we bought the house over 30 years ago. If a plant persisted, despite being ignored by us, it got to stay. For a long time that was just the jade and lavender plants in the planter and strip along the driveway in the front yard, the geraniums along the side fence in the back yard, and a wonderful apricot tree in the upper level of the back yard. (Sadly, after years of giving us great fruit, we had to remove the tree, because the squirrels were getting to the fruit before we could and our wolf hound kept eating the rotten fruit that fell to the ground.)
Early on, we did try to do a raised vegetable garden bed with tomatoes and such, but these were promptly eaten up by squirrels and slugs, so we gave up on that quickly. We also stuck a couple of thyme and rosemary and oregano plants into the ground (that we had bought as fresh herbs) and they grew into huge bushes that have taken over much of the bank between the lower back and upper back yards.
Perhaps my lack of gardening skills is why posts about gardening fascinate me so (sort of like the fact that I don’t like to travel, but love to read travel books.) And I also know that many of you are gardeners. So, today I am going to recommend the post I read this week, as well as another I read this summer by a different author.
The first post I mentioned, “Starting to Garden,” is by Rachel Katz, in her newsletter Inner Workings. It is a fairly long post, but I really do recommend it. Katz is a beautiful writer, and this is one of those posts that has so much meaning on so many levels.
This is also true in Robyn Ryle’s post, “The Caladiums are running right on time.” This is an older post I remembered liking from August, and frankly, if you enjoy it, I would suggest looking back in her archives of her newsletter, You Think Too Much, because she has written a good number of posts about gardening that I have enjoyed.
So, these two newsletters, and these specific posts, are ones that I highly recommend this week. Meanwhile, I am going to water the five plants currently on the windowsill of my kitchen, the only gardening I ever do anymore. Safe from slugs and squirrels and because they are right in my face, I am less likely to forget them and let them die.
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Hello Louisa, Through your kitchen window, I believe I'm finally seeing the "canyon" you have sometimes mentioned. How interesting.
Helen Simer
Looks like the amaryllis is going to bloom!