On Friday Lizzy and I planted the Venus Garden. The theme for the garden this year is Forgiveness. I don’t feel like I have a single coherent thought on this issue. In fact, I felt quite unprepared to plant a garden around this theme, but the Angels said to get on with it. So, we planted.

The basic geometry is that of a five pointed star with a center spiral of Mehera White Marigolds. The star is planted in a diverse group of many kinds of Purple Flowers. The points are more Meheras and White Osteospermums. The star is outlined in Yellow Marigolds and the whole garden is ringed in Sweet Alyssum.

Lizzy and I did some fairly rudimentary math to get the star laid out with stakes and string. Then like a good dance improv ( or what I imagine it is like to do good dance improv), we found ourselves nudged to plant things this way and that. Much to my surprise the garden slid into being with great ease.

That could basically sum up the week. A harmonious, joy filled, and smooth week of planting when I expected to be scrambling.

Bella, our elder stateswoman black cat, sat on the steps to the barn as we planted. She is very shy so we were very happy that she joined us.

All the Flowers for this garden were grown in the greenhouse. I had not started any Petunias. Since I associate Petunias with forgiveness, I expected the Angels to send me out to buy some, but they wanted to go with exactly what we had grown. Not surprisingly, we had exactly the right number of plants for the spaces to be filled.

Here we have just finished planting the inner spiral of Meheras and the points of the star. Lizzy is just starting a ring of “Violet Queen” Cleomes.

This is what the design looked like on paper. Below is what it looked like when it was all planted.

There is one little clump of orange icelandic poppies right there at the bottom. It will be interesting to see if the Angels will ask us to transplant them elsewhere. Planting the Alignment Garden last year was like marching with a well practiced drill team. Everything was done so precisely. This suggested a connection to its theme of Alignment.

I wonder if part of the Forgiveness theme will involve leaving this “imperfect” rogue patch of orange Flowers. We shall see.

We finished the garden with the Yellow Marigolds. As the last Marigold was planted, I asked the Elementals if I needed to water the transplants in. This is my standard operating procedure for anything being transplanted. An emphatic NO was followed about two minutes later by another twenty four hour deluge.

Here is the brook at the bottom of our hill today. It is still raining.

A busy week. Rain a near constant companion. Joy too!

Here is Lizzy surveying the scene with her cousin Caroline, moments after receiving her college diploma amidst a torrential downpour. Note mended ankle!

Everyone, including cousin Taylor in her signature pink raincoat, beat a retreat across a lush landscape to the dance studio where the cousins celebrate with some improv dancing.

The next day, Sunday, Ben runs a half marathon. The rain begins again right after he finishes running.

There is a two day pause in rain storms on Monday and Tuesday with overcast skies perfect for planting. The Angels’ plans to have us plant the gardens this week prove inspired, as always. Emily, Lizzy and their friends Lilly Callahan and Anna Pierce Slive prove to be a joyful foursome of enthusiasm, humor, and zesty wisdom. I haven’t had this much fun planting the gardens in years! Here we are planting the main vegetable garden which this year is a series of concentric rings broken by three equidistant paths. From above, it looks sort of like a peace sign.

The center was all lettuce.

In addition to the lettuce in the center, this garden has beans, parsley, leeks, basil, squash, pumpkins, corn, zinnias, and red shiso planted in it this growing season.

Compared to many years, this garden is very simple in its design and I am grateful for this.

The fabulous foursome rests on their laurels for a victory photo when the first garden is DONE! We even have a few moments of blue in the sky!

May May also thinks she needs a rest after her arduous supervisory duties.

The next garden, planted on Tuesday, is a spiral of brassicas including cauliflowers, broccolis, cabbages, and brussel sprouts with the outside of the spiral several rings of potatoes.

Here is Lizzy planting tomatoes behind this crop of garlic. Peppers and Eggplants also went into spaces outside the bigger gardens.

A pause at dusk on Tuesday. Almost a real sunset but not quite.

On Wednesday Emily and I worked to put annuals in all the different Flower beds. It rained harder and harder but we kept at it until everything was planted. Tomorrow we plant the last of the big gardens that needs to be planted.