It has been one week and four days since this year’s summer solstice, and when Juan V, came over to help me work in my terrace garden this past Thursday, he remarked that the summer solstice was a sad time for him because, while it is the time of the most sunlight, it is also the time that, from the day of the summer solstice going forward, every day will be getting darker a little earlier; whereas with the winter solstice, which is the longest and darkest day of the year, every day going forward gets a little brighter. He is right about these respective solstices, and the effect of sunlight is not lost on either one of us, mostly due to our love for tending gardens.
One of the main things that was done in my urban garden this past Thursday was moving my“Tamukeyama” that I have had for number of years (and have written about in prior blog posts including ones which you may refer to by clicking here and here), into a bigger terra–cotta pot. We did this because its roots were calling out for more room to move around (aren’t we all crying out for that!), and while it was necessary to move my “Tamukeyama” into bigger digs, the move to a bigger home, for any plant, herb, vine, shrub, or tree, can be stressful. Therefore, in order to minimize my “Tamukeyama”s’ adjustment, we planted him in a manner that he could stay in the same location in the garden, and, thus continue to receive the same sunlight source that he was accustomed to; hence, his adjustment to a new home would be minimal.
You may know, dear reader, from your having seen my first garden movie, The Kiwi Vine Speaks Fifteen Minutes of Fame Almost (for information on this movie, please click here), that my “Tamukeyama” thrived in a terra–cotta pot that was placed in a rod–iron plant stand. By my having it potted in a rod–iron stand, air was able to circulate around my “Tamukeyama”, so planing its move gave me cause for great concern. Therefore, I was not only fortunate to be able to find and use a larger clay pot, but I was also fortunate that I found a larger rod–iron stand. This stand could’ve easily been the sibling of the old stand because they look alike — except for their height and girth. What this meant for my “Tamukeyama” was less things to adjust to in its new home. If you’d like to get a visual sense of what we did, please see the collage posted below:
In the left–hand side, my “Tamukeyama” can be seen standing in its former rod-iron plant stand, and though it is hard to see, because it is an aerial view of my garden, the right-hand side of the collage shows my “Tamukeyama” in its larger stand.
The other change we made to the garden was to place my Acer shirasawanum (Autumn Moon), — keeping him in his same terra–cotta home — in the stand that once belonged to my “Tamukeyama”. I find the shifting of my trees’ living quarters around akin to this: when a family has more than one child, or children of different sexes, and living space within the home permits, one child has a certain room in the house, while the others know when he or she moves out of the room, one of them will move into that space. My Acer shirasawanum (Autumn Moon) seems pleased to have been chosen to be placed in what had been the “Tamukeyama”s’ place of residence as evidenced in the collage posted below.
On the top left–hand corner of this collage, you can see my Acer shirasawanum’s (Autumn Moon), “limey” colored leaves brushing against the copper-colored leaves of my Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina). As you may recall, dear reader, the very awesome colors of both of these leaves, was mentioned in a previous post, authored by my Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina), which you may refer to by clicking here. The top right–hand corner of the collage shows my Acer shirasawanum’s (Autumn Moon), “limey” colored leaves on their own. As for the lower left–hand corner of the collage, my Acer shirasawanum’s (Autumn Moon), can be seen to the far right hand corner of the collage’s image, which means it it was in the southeast corner of my terrace garden, where it had been moved from its location of the northwest corner near my Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina), because it needed more shade. However, now that it has been placed in the “Tamukeyama”s' original rod–iron stand, it is in the southwest corner as indicated in the collage image at the lower right.
Whether the summer solstice means less light from this day forward, my Tamukeyama' and my Acer shirasawanum (Autumn Moon), are for the moment, unconcerned as they are happy wiggling their toes in their new digs.
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