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"I do believe in an everyday sort of magic...the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we're alone." Charles de Lint

Friday, May 16, 2025

Chotchkies

Subtitle: Big Work

I'm celebrating Patty's lungwort today...such a handsome plant with dainty but showy flowers! 

I think I'm done with all my big perennial garden projects. For now anyway. I divided and moved some things I've been thinking about for years...and am in the process of giving some plants away. That is the gift of perennials....they just keep giving...and I love to share!

I still need to plant some annuals and get out all my little ornamental garden chotchkies...but that's for another day. Today I'm putting my feet up...and basking in the glow of the big work being done. 


While I was writing this....I looked up chotchkies to make sure I was spelling it right and laughed when this came up: Chotchkies are those small "worthless" dust collecting objects, especially household ornaments, that your mother or wife display with pride. 

And there actually is a chotchkies.com  According to the site they are also known as knickknacks, trinkets, trifels, baubles, gimcracks, curios, momentos or souvenirs. 

Gimcrack was new to me: 

I am beginning to think that chotchkies and gimcracks have a bad reputation! I will display mine with pride! They are all deceptively attractive! 
An afterthought...or an after-story...another big work garden story.

As part of our condo association pool renovation last year we had some new landscaping put in. There were a lot of leftover old daylilies that didn't fit into the new plan so the landscaper said to just set them in the woods and they would be fine until they found a home. They were fine..and they sat there fully fine for a FULL YEAR! They even bloomed last summer without being in soil. Here they are sitting at the edge of the woods ready for another growing season.

I decided it was time for them to have a home...so I rescued them from the woods and planted them all along the outside of the long pool fence in between some hosta. Big work...big satisfaction. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. 

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2 comments:

  1. dotty seiter: now playingMay 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM

    Big beautiful garden work you're doing, MaryAnn, and I"m most eager to see your deceptively attractive tchotchkes once they're in place! What a fun to hear the big work garden after-story … you've got it going on in a big beautiful way.

    Dave is the big gardener here and, like you, he is so happy to be busy outdoors again. Our next door neighbors just had a fence installed a few days ago and suddenly we have what has turned out to be a terrific backdrop to showcase a holly bush, dogwood, and several rose-of-sharon plantings in our yard that have never looked so good before : )

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    1. MaryAnn ShupeMay 17, 2025 at 8:01 AM

      I guess "tchotchkes" is the correct spelling...but I think the other version is a thing too. Regardless....I'll report back in when I adorn my garden with baubles and curios!

      I knew Dave was the gardener in the family...and I'm excited about your new fence. They do make the perfect backdrop to shrubs, trees and flowers. Fun fun fun!

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