I made a very uncharacteristic purchase the other day. Normally, the plants that grow in my garden are of the useful variety. Sure, some of them are also beautiful, but I grow them for food and for fiber and for medicine and for wildlife. I’m not really a gardener who plants for beauty.
However, the other day I walked into the garden store with some birthday money. This is usually a bad idea, because it makes my birthday money disappear. I saw a plant. That plant was tall and it had very large flowers. It’s a lily. I bought it.
This plant is now growing beside my kiwi fruit vines next to my daughter’s playhouse. It’s a beautiful scent to wake up to in the morning when I head out into my garden to water and meditate on the early morning sounds and scenery.
This flower has set me to thinking about integrating night flowers into my garden as well. I’m not one for large and lush scents, but the smell of some flowers as you brush by them on a spring or fall evening would be lovely. Or how about sitting outside in the summer time, reading a book and smelling the flowers as they release their scents?
Over the last few months, I’ve also been debating bringing cut flowers into our home more regularly. Cut flowers are one of those expenses that I never seem to justify, since they are there just for the pleasure of looking at them and smelling them. However, it’s also something that makes me feel rich, in an odd way. Having a few dollars to spend on something beautiful that will make my day happy in small, 30-second increments may just be a price that is well worthwhile.
What do you do to add beauty to your home and your garden – beauty that you notice every day?