Morning Glory

Summary

The author, a morning person living in an apartment with limited space for gardening, has transformed their small porch into a vibrant garden featuring a flourishing archway of morning glories, which brings joy and a sense of glory to their daily life.

Abstract

The author, who resides in an apartment on the Great Plains of Turtle Island, expresses a deep longing for gardening but is limited to just three large pots on the porch. After previous attempts at growing vegetables and herbs yielded minimal results, the author decided to plant only flowers this year, particularly morning glories, which have thrived and are about to bloom profusely. The morning glories, supported by decorative wrought iron posts, have created a green archway that is now budding with flowers. The author cherishes the morning routine of watering and tending to the vines, which is accompanied by the music of birds. Despite the flowers wilting by mid-afternoon due to the heat, the author finds great satisfaction in starting the day with the beauty of morning glories, aiming to maintain a sense of glory throughout the day.

Opinions

The author believes that flowers are extremely important and prefers them over minimal vegetable harvests.
They find satisfaction in the growth and care of morning glories, which is enhanced by the early morning sun and the bird music at that time of day.
The author values the aesthetic and emotional impact of the morning glories, considering them a perfect way to start the day with glory.
They contrast their morning gardening routine with their friend's evening gardening habits, suggesting that a person's gardening preferences can reflect their personality and daily rhythm.
The author expresses a desire for a full garden but acknowledges the practical limitations and the benefits of their current setup, including the ability to focus on writing.
They appreciate the local produce store as a source for organic produce, which compensates for the lack of a personal vegetable garden.
The author has a clear preference for morning glories over other flowers like night-blooming jasmine, which they cannot grow in their region.
They see the morning glories as a way to set a positive tone for the entire day and strive to extend this sense of glory until nightfall.

And glory all day long

Living in an apartment I have no place to garden and for me that is a very sad thing. My green thumb aches.

Luckily, my landlord has allowed me to place three large pots on the porch in front of the door leading into the apartment building. It is hard to do much gardening with just three large pots but at least it’s something.

In recent years I have grown tomato plants and parsley and other herbs with a few flowers. The vegetable and herb harvest were extremely minimal and hardly worth the effort so this year I decided to plant nothing but flowers. Flowers are SOOOO important! Besides, there is a produce store just a few blocks away that is open from July until early October that sells produce from local farmers and gardeners. I can satisfy my need for quality home-grown organic produce there.

The porch is covered and has decorative wrought iron posts holding up the roof. These wrought iron pillars are perfect for climbing vines, as I learned when I planted a few morning glories in recent years. This year I tripled the number of morning glory seeds that I planted and now there is a very green archway of morning glory vines.

And they recently finally started to bloom. Mind you, so far there have only been a few random flowers but the vines are now so covered with buds that in about 3 to 5 days there will be an explosion of blue flowers.

I am so excited! Blooming flowers are my favorite kind of explosion.

The porch gets plenty of morning sun which, as you can imagine, is perfect for morning glories. It is also perfect for me since I’m a morning person. I have a friend who lives on the West Coast who recently took up gardening. She has called me several times for gardening advice. She has become almost as maniacal about flowering vines as I am except she grows night-blooming jasmine instead of morning glories. Since she is an evening person I guess it’s appropriate that her flowering vines bloom in the evening and at night while mine bloom in the morning. Perhaps one’s gardening inclinations can reveal a lot about the gardener.

I happen to love jasmine, too, but it just doesn’t grow here on the Great Plains of Turtle Island. Morning glories, however, utterly thrive here.

Early every morning I go downstairs to water my three pots of morning glories. It is one of the first things I do after requisite ablutions. I love being out-of-doors just before the sun rises. After watering the vines I then train them through the wrought-iron, every upward and across forming the arch. This gives me great satisfaction — especially with all the bird music going on at that time of day. I used to do the same thing with the morning glories and honeysuckle that my mother had in her garden numerous decades ago.

Oh, how different my life would be if I had a full garden! I would be outside all morning long. I would never get any writing done.

Many people start their day with coffee and incessant thinking and planning or with a newspaper containing horrific news. Not me. I start my day with glory — morning glory that is. That really is the perfect name for this flowering vine. They truly are glorious.

The challenge is to maintain that glory throughout the day. The flowers themselves can’t do that. By mid-afternoon they are shriveled from the terrifying heat. Thank goodness I have air conditioning in my apartment or else I would wilt, too.

I like to start my day with as much glory as possible. It sets the tone for the day. If I can maintain a state of glory all day long until I go to sleep at night then that is one very special day. I’ve had days like that. And I have been having more days like that in recent years. Someday every day will be like that.

Thank God for flowers!

Be sure not to miss my latest story:

Morning Glory

And glory all day long

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