Violets

April 18, 2012

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Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue… and White, and Red, and All Sorts Come to Think of It

The violets are blooming and as always I am taken in by their sweet fragrance and colourful little faces. I met a gardener yesterday afternoon, a woman decades my senior, and as we spoke of the violets in her garden and our mutual affection for their graceful charm, I was surprised to learn that she did not know that they are edible!

Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica) growing in the garden of the gardener I met yesterday afternoon. She said that, “…they like it underneath the tree.”

I love the combination here of Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica) with chartreuse Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’)

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March 1, 2012

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Pretend It’s Spring

I just wrote and deleted a lengthy paragraph dedicated to complaining about the snow that came and went and came again and the lack of snow that has been the nattering gossip of the 2011/2012 winter season, but then I deleted it because COME ON…

I wonder, does obsessing about the weather come with being a gardener or does it simply provide me with an excuse to voice it? I’ve been a gardener for so long now that I no longer recall what I complained or obsessed about in the years BC (Before Cultivation).

All I know is that I woke up this morning, looked out the window and decided that a springtime picture was the order of the day.

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May 5, 2011

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Violets Galore

The new yard came with violets… lots and lots of violets. They’re blooming now and even though the yard continues to look like the excavation site of a dead body on a television police procedural…

I’m in heaven.

I have longed to have the space to grow enough violets to make cheerful springtime jellies. A few years ago I set about making this dream real by installing white and purple violet plants into a shady corner of my community garden plot. I began growing them in a large trough on the roof, too. Then we moved here and I inherited a yard of them.

Between all of these locations I should have more than enough to candy, make my jellies, and eat fresh in salads. I like the young leaves, too. Of course, we are currently in the process of digging up the yard, but I’ve been careful to dig around the violets and set each one (barring a few casualties) for replanting. I plan to carefully extract the plants from the grass that is growing around them, and replant them into their own swath along with the three other colour varieties I have collected over the last few years. You think I’m crazy for taking so much care with a plant that spreads like a weed, but I can’t wait for you to see it.

Man, do I ever love having a yard.

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April 18, 2008

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Field of Violets (Viola sororia)

I thought I had certain areas of the city thoroughly mapped out based on the flowers that live there and when they bloom, but yesterday I discovered a huge field of blooming violets that I had not been aware existed. Colour has returned to my city.

If you look closely you can see a little flying insect in the foreground. The world is alive again. I am soaking it all up, not taking anything for granted.

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