Gardening at the lake

Last week, I had lunch with an old friend. Mary, a skilled and passionate gardener, asked me if I enjoyed any leisure time for gardening while I was in Maine. I snorted daintily. First of all, not much grows in the rocky, sandy soil on my property. But even if flora could survive here, I really don’t enjoy gardening, so I don’t much bother with landscaping type projects. Frankly, I’d rather stick a pencil in my eye than dig around in the dirt.


I do enjoy looking at flowers, though, (especially when they are in someone else’s garden, particularly Mary’s). I’m definitely into low maintenance flower gardening here at my camp. OK, NO MAINTENANCE, and now for the first time, I’ll share my secret for “gardening” at the lake:

Makes one flower garden

Active time: 5 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

Supplies:

• One 30 lb bag potting soil (the kind with the fertilizer already in it will save time down the road)

• A dozen potted annual seedlings (same color, same variety—no sense in getting fussy at camp). I’m partial to pink impatiens.

• Household scissors



Directions:

Throw the bag of potting soil on the shore. With the scissors, cut a rectangle out of the plastic bag of the potting soil. Plant seedlings. Water thoroughly. (Timesaving hint: if you place the bag on the shore of the lake where the wave action reaches it, you won’t ever have to water the flowers.) Ta da! The perfect no maintenance garden.