Harry Potter and the Magic of Gardening*

So, I'm going to try not to talk about my garden too much. I don't want to bore anyone. I started gardening last summer when Earth Girl gave us a bunch of begonias and day lilies that she rescued from a nurdury that was going to throw them out. Now I've dug up most of my front yard and put in flower beds everywhere.

Today I placed my oder for all the swesome plants I am putting in this year. My yard is going to look completely different. Kitten, Oscelot and I own a hundred year old bungalow in the downtown area of my city. Some of the houses in my neighborhod are still rentals, but the others are gradually getting nicer, since they made us a historic district last year. When we do sell, we're going to want a nice mature landscape, and honestly, since we had an ice storm about 5 years ago, out yard has been bare. We lost all of our trees and stuff.

So I went to this fantastic website, Exciting Gardens (check them out) and spent about $100 today. In return I am getting, among other things, enough hedging to completely cover the perimiter of our yard front and back, a Japaneese Royal Cherry Tree, about 7 different kinds of perrinal bulbs, 4 rose bushes and some flowering shrubs. Anyone who gardens will tell you, I got a dang good deal.

Anyway, the reason for the Harry Potter reference was my geek moment of the week. We ordered a special breed of hedge, called a privet hedge, and its really pretty. They get to 10 feet tall if you don't keep them trimmed, but they're the kind you can make sculptures out of. (No, I won't) Anyone who has read the Harry Potter books will recall that Harry lives on Privet Drive. I thought this was amusing because Aunt Petunia is spying over the hedge in the first book to see what the neighbors were doing. Also, it reflect the kind of neighborhood Harry would have grown up in, one with an emphasis on privacy and on highly groomed gardens and lawns. It was for me a brief glimmering insight into the books, one that would have gone unnoticed without my grdening hobby.

So there you go, my brief moment of geek that I got from my geeky yard hobby.


*In case I haven't mentioned it, I am not JK Rowling and Harry Potter belongs all to her. I just enjoy him from time to time. She's a great writer. Grab the books.