Photo by Mark Nowak
No, you’ll find no dreadful scenes like the above lurking about my property. There is no need for manufactured horror here. If I want to be filled with fright and despair, all I have to do is take a short walk around the yard. Do you dare to accompany me? All right, but just remember … you were warned!
The Black Lagoon of Misery
This was once a cheerful water feature, with bright orange fish darting through the clear water. Now, the once-pristine pond is more like a swamp, choked with leaves and inexplicably-dead water plants. The fish lurk in the bottom, their only hope possible adoption by a kindly neighbor.
Dark Shadows of Doom Overhead
By the thousands, they rustle in the breeze, still bright green for the most part, taunting us as they flutter down, one or two at a time. They’ll save the big drop until 3 hours before the first major snowstorm. And there they’ll lay for months, ready to be scooped up in heavy, sodden piles after the thaw.
Will the Bulbs Never End?
Who ordered all these? What could he or she have been thinking? Who’s going to plant all these? How much did all this cost? This is madness, I tell you, madness!
The Killing Fields
This is where young, vibrant, healthy, expensive plants are taken to die … slowly. The torture is simple but exquisite. If planted, these perennial salvias, daylilies, and geraniums might make a bright show next summer. If planted—and that’s looking less and less likely.
OK, that’s all for today. Thank you for visiting my little garden. I’m sorry if it has been unpleasant. Once I had beautiful flower beds, lush ferns, colorful container annuals, and much more. Not any more.
The horror! The horror!
(And—oh yes—there’s also next Tuesday.)
Thanks for this fun posting. The Killing Fields made me laugh the most)) Our family did not celebrate Halloween this year, because now life is like eternal Halloween.
I want to share with you one interesting fact that I just recently learned about Halloween. One of the main attributes of Halloween is the pumpkin. This is a tribute to the tradition of the end of the harvest.
But actually, now we have to use turnips.
One of the legends says that a certain blacksmith Jack tricked the devil into promising never to take his soul. After death, the sinner could not go to heaven, he also had no way to hell. The devil gave Jack an ember, which he put in an empty turnip. Such a flashlight, known as the Jack-O-Lantern, helped him illuminate his path. The turnip was replaced with a pumpkin due to the availability and cheapness of the latter.