The Benefits of Lazy Gardening

I used to be so neat and tidy in the garden (at least in spurts). Now it's pretty much teensy spurts of work and long stretches of watching the weeds being fruitful and multiplying. But during the last spate of dry weather Monkey and I ventured out into the garden to bring order to chaos (me to weed and Monkey to jump around, dig, "help" and generally instill that there will always be chaos).

Usually, by this time of year, I would have cut down the dried stalks of windflower. But they're still there - standing tall and crackly and having completely gone to seed. They're pretty interesting really, tall stalks covered in cotton balls (which is originally why I'd kept them so long so Monkey could see how they change) but by now it was just because life had been marching on without a thought to the garden. That was all about to change. The sun was out, I was armed with clippers and a bucket and I was getting down to business. I need to cut them down before the tulips start pushing through and I can't get to them anymore without causing more harm than good.

But as I started to clip I heard a buzz and saw green in my peripheral vision. And there was an Anna's hummingbird collecting fuzz for its nest! I whispered to Logan to slowly come over and we got to watch as it hovered and collected a good sized ball. Wow! So the stalks remain. We were lucky enough to watch another collection today which is why I remembered that I wanted to share the benefits of lazy gardening with you. Unfortunately, I haven't had the camera nearby when the visitors buzz in so you'll have to make do with the pictures of the neglected (thank goodness) windflower stalks.

If you're interested in gardening with kids you might want also want to read this.