T’is the season of boxes and each needing to be in the right place!
As I watched a UPS truck loaded with boxes, I realized I might have a different mind track than most people at this time of year. I was not thinking of the rising postage costs, the possible damage to gifts en route, or even where I will be Christmas morning.
Instead, I was struck with the number, the variety of shapes and the well considered arrangement it took to fit so many boxes in one truck. Somehow… it reminded me of spring and gardening and left me wondering where in my favorite garden could there be a need for boxes!
It is hard to explain my thought process in a blog, (just as hard in person so I rarely try any more!) So for now I will do as I did on Saturday, find another green heart to share my “out of the box “type of thinking! Thank you Steffie Littlefield of Garden Heights and John Shea on Saturday’s KTRS Inside Out Show for participating in my, Plant of the Week “rave” about this holiday worthy evergreen, the Boxwood, casually known to most “hortiholics” as “boxes”.
I confess I haven’t been as busy as the UPS guys this time of the year, but perhaps you are so I decided not to drivel on too long before I share my favorite traits about this rather dense, easy to trim evergreen.
Boxes, botanically known as buxus are handsome! They are also generally deer resistant and are tolerant of gentle clipping this time of year to decorate- my boxes, door hangings, candle bases or even mantles!
To learn more about some of the more reliable performing varieties of boxwoods or “boxes” as I fondly call them visit Missouri Botanical Garden's PlantFinder. this should give you a good description of specific varieties and what is available in our area. I usually leave several links here but the web is not cooperating tonight! I will add some when I can. Meanwhile, visit your favorite garden center/ nursery and ask which ones they feel best about recommending for your particular site. Steffie of Garden Heights mentioned a few of her favorites, so I am sure she can line you up with some great choices! Also know each variety may have a have different growth habits! Oh so, so , so many boxes!
My words of wisdom about this beautiful greenery may sound clumsy and a little like a warning, but as my husband likes to say about so many things, it’s all about, “location, location, location”! (He isn’t talking plants when he says it but it certain applies to this plant for it to perform well!)
Boxes must have the right location, with good drainage, water even in the winter, and some protection from wind!
John Shea, of Collier, Thompson and Shea
Garden Height’s Steffie Littlefield
Ellen Barredo, of Bowood Farms
Greenscape Gardens, Jennifer Schamber
KTRS is doing a three person round robin rotation that will address the part of KTRS’s Inside Out Show’s focus on gardening, landscaping and turf care (basically the “Out” portion of the show.)
John Shea will continue with his team of experts and industry representatives from the home building industry and hardware retail suppliers as the anchor of the Inside Out Show and as professional advisor for the balance of home owner call in questions.
All three of the new Inside Out Show’s garden hosts/ experts are wonderful writers and have featured articles published on a frequent basis in the Gateway Gardener. KTRS’s website will surely be updated with this new hosting information shortly!
My Faith Note:
“Location” has always been a focus for me in my Christian walk too, especially lately. Location is the defining word for my family too! “Too far from home” is my eldest daughter, just “not close enough”, is my youngest daughter, who battles traffic and gas prices and thankfully the one with the most recent change of location, my son of which “I am grateful it is not farther” is the thought that rests in the back of my mind. (Actually I think it is one of the most perfect places I can imagine. I could almost call it my idea of heaven on earth location. And those that know me, know I don't say that lightly or very often!
Location can be a daily matter as well. Yesterday as always I pray to be in the right place, at the right time and sometimes but not always, when I reflect on my day, He let’s me see my path and if my prayer was answered. Yesterday, I was in the right place for me and as I think about it I hope it was the right place for others as well!
At breakfast with my dad at our weekly place, I noticed the smile on the waitresses seemed a bit weak. I couldn’t help starting a conversation that lead to her sharing her lack of enthusiasm for Christmas.
She had lost two sisters, who loved “The Season” and confessed she struggles to enjoy it at all and wouldn’t even try if not for her children and grandkids. I sympathized and shared about our loss in our family of our two youngest children, my sister and my only brother.
My dad sat very still during the exchange, more patient than normal with my chit chat. During the conversation, he didn’t say a word just an occasional nod in agreement. As she left our table, I hoped I had not made anything worse for her or us. I was even more uncertain when I looked across the table and I thought I saw tears in my dad’s eyes. Some how the rest of the day, well, seemed more honest, if not better as we got through the day.
The same day, in the afternoon, I held a newborn girl in my arms and gloried at the miracle of birth and the transformation of my young friends from a couple to a family. As I left the hospital, I thought about how grateful I am for my own children, those who have let me share that special beginning time in their lives and how thankful I am for that special time in my own life.
By night I found myself giving a blessing to the front line woman at a fast food place who was struggling to learn the register on a busy night. When I smiled with understanding of her situation, she flashed a smile back to me. Then her face furrowed and her voice cracked as she mentioned she had hoped for a family night but as the sole supporter of her family, and with her husband out of work for over two years, she was thankful for the opportunity to learn the register. I offered a prayer of blessing for the business that employs her, hope for her husband and patience for her customers as it was crazy busy for it being a Thursday night!
By the time I got home, I was so glad I had a quiet home, a wonderful family and such special friends and neighbors, that when I brought my dad his “look what I made for you, no salt, tasteless with too much variety” dinner, I was able to smile when he began to preach his theory of why his ankles are swollen, why there is nothing wrong with opening a whole can of salt laden spaghetti every day and eating it all.
I tried to hold that smile as he launched into his spiel on calories, what a body needs, and who I think are the experts on nutrition and healthy heart eating. (I may have let my smile slip but only to help hold my tongue)
Somehow I found myself still smiling when the garage door didn’t work. “This is exercise”, I said to myself as I weaved between dogs and fallen leaves that blew in with me at the front door, and followed me through the garage while I struggled with the door and finally blew out when I pulled the running car into the garage.
I found my smile again just minutes later when I was timely enough walking the dogs to be outside just in time to motion to my husband not to fret about the door as much as I had as I had already unhooked it. Unfortunatly I wasn’t fast enough to control the dog circus at my feet fast enough to open it for him. Hopefully he knew my heart and my good intentions!
I am not sure I should have smiled when I heard him grumble my name about something while he showered-but I did. “Hum, here I am Lord, everything is normal”, and maybe that is a location blessing in its self!
As I laid my head on my pillow last night I thought more about my “location”. Yes, it is sometimes hard for my imperfect self to know what is the right place for anything, especially myself but thankfully I am aware of my failings and make it part of my daily prayer.
All my prayers end as a “location” prayer. My sister Joanne, “located” now in heaven helped me find the perfect way to include a request for “location” for my life, even as it changes. It became the inspiration for the naming of her BENCH Garden.
Daily I ask God to place me wherever He can use my heart, my hands, and my words and at the very end I ask Him, to keep me, no matter where I am, close to Him:
B e
E ver
N ear
C hrist’s
H eart
…Re
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