Elder Goth Gardening~~~

Well Darklings,

My friend who loves to garden has completed her design for me, it will include roses of the dark bloom variety, as well as bulb plants, but I told her I wanted the dark blooms, but she is insisting that I also include white blooms as well to help balance it out. 

Since she is following what was originally planted by my Great Aunt we are really recreating her garden but not so tangled and weedy,  we noticed that a lot of planting beds were raised and would tier down and we discovered that it saves a lot of back breaking problems, we also uncovered a pond with a waterfall that was over grown with bougainvillea and hidden from view,  the pond and waterfall are going to have to wait, but she could see that it was set up so that fish could swim in most of it but with a barrier to prevent them from going into where the pump for the waterfall would be, also behind it was a "ballcock" mechanism hooked up to a faucet, when the faucet is turned on the ballcock would work to allow more water when a certain amount had evaporated and it would bring it up to a certain level, much like the system in a toilet, simple, mechanical and practical.  The waterfall would aerate the water as well  but since chemicals are added to our drinking water it's hard to introduce goldfish to the water as it comes out of the faucet, she believes there is a way to avoid that and she's going to look into that further.

One type of fish she feels we should have is the mosquito fish that we can get free from out water company to avoid "west Nile" virus.  So we'll think on this for next year.

If an Elder Goth is lucky enough to have a garden what would one plant in it?  

Well it depends upon your theme, a garden should have a theme---there is a theme for plants from the Bible, plants from one's favoirte gothic novels, herbs from certain countries, a butterfly garden, a white garden, a grey garden, a dark garden, a witchy garden, a cemetery garden, a fantasy garden.

From what my friend and I can see, it appears that my Great Aunt was going for a Cemetery Garden,  she managed to find fencing from old cemeteries, even a few tombstones, which we think may have come from the "Wave Organ" in San Francisco many years ago, a few religious themes, even some fantastical bizarre statues,  and it seems that as we walk towards the pond, we step into a slighly different theme, so we'll keep that in our focus.

By having raised beds one can use either bricks, river rock, or jagged stones or carefully marbled stones, it depends upon what one can afford,  salvage is always good and my friend is big on salvage.

So first take into account what you can handle espeically if you have a difficult time getting around, 2nd decide on a theme, 3rd take into account water rates/costs and the best way to water your garden, 4th the layout of your property, 5th to what purpose do you want your garden to give back to you, 6th and of course your pocket book.

Now if you are in an apartment, then hopefully you'll have a balcony or small patio (if on the ground floor) and with that then it would have to be planters, but again decide on theme.   If your apartment building cannot provide you with any garden space, then at least every two weeks indulge in fresh flowers or set up a fake garden in one corner of your place with fake flowers and create your own indoor garden that will never wilt or need water, you can have a small waterfall to plug in just make sure it's on a space where it will not splash water or do water damage.  You can have indoors african violets in a variety of colors which will give a sense of freshness to your home, and caring for them can instill a sense of tranquility that one would find in a cemetery or meditation garden.

Avoid marijuana, it's too costly and it seems to cause fires and bring the police, something any Goth would prefere to avoid.

Later Darklings