A true garden is never finished

I've had successes and failures in the courtyard garden so far this summer.

The successes have been the perennials planted two, three, four years ago, which have prospered and grown.  Also the Swamp Milkweed which came up by itself...

One big failure was my fault:  I killed my beautiful Borage with too much water. The stem rotted at the base.  I've saved many seeds from it, though, and hope to have it again.

The Artichoke withered and died, too.  Don't know why.
And the flowers I attempted to start from seed?  Only Queen Anne's Lace  and  Larkspur made it.
The others:  Stock, Mignonette, and Shirley Poppy sprouted, but overnight one night some creature came and ate the seedlings!

Then the grounds guys came and did some necessary weeding and thinning and mulching. That was great, except the person wielding the weedkiller spray hit some of my plants, too.  That way I lost the Cleome, the Scabiosa, the Calendula, and possibly some of the Larkspur.  So it goes.


I read May Sarton's diary of her gardening,  Plant Dreaming Deep,  a long time ago and should try to find it and read it again now that it will mean so much more .  One thing she says:

"Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything - except itself."

-   May Sarton, Plant Dreaming Deep, 1968