A time of beginnings

Perhaps 15 years ago or so, we created a Moon Garden at our Coventryville house and it turned out pretty cool. The structure of the garden was native black granite boulders surrounded by white gravel paths. We planted it with annuals and perennials with gray, silver, or pale green foliage and fragrant white flowers. Here and there we allowed some purple.

A Moon Garden is designed to be enjoyed in the evening and on moonlit nights. It was a labor of love. Over several years, our family had suffered much loss: our nephews Michael and Matt, Steve’s mother, my stepfather Will, and my Mom. Chairs at our holiday tables went from a bustling many to a quiet few.

The Moon Garden felt perfect for that time of our lives -- a quiet spot to reflect, heal heavy losses, and soothe jangled nerves. At night the garden glowed.

But now doesn’t feel like a time of endings. Steve and I are settled in our retirement routines. It’s been three years since we left the corporate world. We love our downsized house here in the borough of Phoenixville. We love choosing what we want to do each day. It is a quieter time but I wouldn’t say it is quiet. We have lots going on. We are thankful for this time of our lives -- we earned it.

What better time than now to plant a new Moon Garden? Oh wow! That’s it. We’ll call this the New Moon Garden.

Rough plan from my garden journal

So far I’ve fully planted two of the five beds. Here’s a partial list of plants:

White creeping comfrey

Variegated horehound

Lamb’s ears

Elephant ears

Daisy ‘Ice Star’

Salvia ‘Snow Nymph’

Peruvian daffodil

Miniature curry plant

Lavender ‘Platinum Blonde’

Artemisia absinthium

Ammi ‘Graceland’

Morning Glory ‘Dolce Vita’

Delphinium ‘Green Twist’

Moonflowers

Datura ‘Evening Fragrance’

Flowering tobacco ‘Woodland’

May 12, 2014 -- Just getting started

I’m waiting on a delivery from Canada of a plant order from Richter’s Herbs including santolina, silver thyme, lavender “Melissa’, silver mound artemisia, germander, and winter savory ... you get the picture. I’m excited! Feels like a new beginning!

Comments

Virginia M. said…

I remember your moon garden, with great joy and admiration. Such a beauty! So creative! Can't wait to see how this one looks in it's full glory

May 13, 2014 at 9:16 AM

Anonymous said…

Holly,
I watched your video about costmary on Youtube. Very interesting. Where do you buy costmary?

May 21, 2014 at 1:37 PM

Holy cow, it’s costmary!

Recently while helping my sister, Kit, move to a new house, we found an inte res ting old bible belonging to “V. H. Reinhart” in the bottom of a moldy old box. I’d never seen a bible like it. The left-hand column is written in German and the right, in English. Victor H. Reinhart, born in 1885, was the father of my step father, Wilbur Reinhart, and I knew from oral family history that he was a Mennonite minister. Inside the bible we found a single, brittle, pale green leaf and immediately recognized it. I said, “Holy cow, it’s costmary!” (Tanacetum balsamita also Chrysanthemum balsamita) Because I’m passionate about both genealogy and herb gardening, this discovery was a bit like taking a beautiful old painting to the Antiques Roadshow and finding a signed copy of the Declaration of Independence behind it. Costmary’s (now obsolete) common name is “bible leaf,” having been used as an aromatic bookmark since the time when a bible was likely the only book in the house. The volat...

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Holly Cusumano

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