Nina Carroll MD

 

 

Garden memories start back in the 50’s. My grandmother’s gorgeously fragrant roses, bee balm, baby’s breath, “johnny jump-ups” and pink pin cushions in her rock garden, and the massive weeping willow under which we sat cooling off near white wooden ducks corralled by the white wood fence around her white home in Fairhaven, MA.  Now it is the site of a strip mall.

Late May 1977 in Port Hope Simpson, Labrador after the snow melt, the vegetable seeds I planted grew extremely fast with the long days/ short nights, in spite of the rocky soil.   I left there midsummer to hitchhike back home to prepare for the next journey to medical school.

The garden in Liege, Belgium was surrounded by tall brick walls drenched in almost daily rain.

A third floor balcony in Cambridge, MA allowed for boxes of herbs and shade loving flowers.

A small inheritance received in 2004 was spent on a garden designer and installation in Westwood. A headlamp helped gardening in the dark, as did my young neighbor Izzy who held the flashlight. Deer slept behind the old stone wall and rose to greet me mornings with their gentle presence before they delicately dined on hostas and rhododendrons.

 

 

Next, taking and slowly making over a garden on the Cape. Each area has a special name and individual pages with tasks and observations in my journal. Mulching early before the weeds bloomed is key. Something dies every year, but other plants thrive. Learning from Fine Gardening magazine.

Working on a four-colored theme: violet, chartreuse, orange, and red in the first Greeting Garden. Pollinators, natives, dry tolerance, partial shade, less effort, more effect and natural beauty. Buddha smiles as the mourning dove perches on his topknot and waits her turn to bathe as the chipmunk scowls behind white penstemons and violet lupines in my garden.