A Flowery Mead

The flowery mead(ow) was the medieval ideal for sitting out in the garden instead of grass. They made garden seats with flowering low herbs growing in them, like thyme. This picture, which you can tell was created in Photoshop, since it is symmetrical, also follows a medieval pattern design style which might have been used on an embroidered or woven tapestry. So it seems to me to be an illustration of an idealized flowery mead.

You can also see that it's what I used as the background for the assignment in the previous post. In fact, I had a lot of fun creating a symmetrical picture which I knew would be covered up. (Although I think it will make a fun journal cover picture, and it will probably appear as one soon in my Cafepress store.) These wildflowers were photographed in Bridgeport CA in spring 2006.

What brings this to mind is that with the cooling weather, suddenly I realized that it is bulb-planting season. And that reminds me of the most successful bit of gardening I ever did — a flowering lawn. My attempt to create the look of this picture. It has old-fashioned violets, which have a fragrance strong as wine in February — they can be smelled from the roof 3 stories up! And lots of little bulbs, which start blooming in mid-January and finish in late May.

Soon I'll post some pictures of the real flowering lawn, and list my favorite little bulbs. But for anyone who wants to do it now — choose small spring-flowering bulbs which can tolerate summer water and grow in your zone. Plant them in early fall, while it's still nice to sit out on the lawn, if possible. And as for distributing them in a natural-looking way, don't bother doing anything fancy, like throwing them. Just dig out a weed and stick in a bulb.

Those with perfect weed-free lawns need not apply. Well, they wouldn't want to — they'd be putting poisons on the lawn to kill the flowering invaders.

(If you can't see this picture, let me know — I used a PNG for this image. I'll post a link to a JPG.)