This was the first tree I planted after I bought the house. I had been watching Tracy's garden videos through 2023, and I was really loving hydrangeas at the time. When I decided to transform the garden, this Quick Fire hydrangea in tree form was where I started. Pollinator friendly, and simple, which is what I wanted. It went in on July 21, 2024. It will be the focal point too, the thing people see right away when they come into the garden.
Shao’s Garden · No. 11
September
Nothing here is permanent, and so nothing here is background. September is both an ending and a beginning, and the two are not in conflict.
7 moments · 3 days · 18 of 25 in bloom
September 5
One moment
September 2
One moment
September arrives quietly. A few leaves let go before you notice them going. The flowers that carried August start to soften at the edges, and the garden begins the long work of putting itself away. I used to find this sad. Now I think it's the reason I pay attention at all. Nothing here is permanent, and so nothing here is background. The last of the dahlias, the light coming in lower each evening, the roses holding on past the point of tidiness. If they lasted, I would stop seeing them. And this is also the month the garden asks me to think ahead. While things are fading above ground, I'm on my knees planting for a spring I can't picture yet. September is both an ending and a beginning, and the two are not in conflict. One is what makes the other worth doing.
Garden
1
September 1
Five moments
The new bench in the east garden, tucked among the tall grasses and the hydrangeas going pale pink, new grass filling in at its feet. I bring my coffee out here every morning now.
I moved the Mexican feather grass closer to the east lawn border, where its fine, golden-buff foliage sweeps out over the edge. It's the movement I keep coming back to, the way it never quite settles.