A Garden in Disarray
I haven’t the heart
to pull the volunteers
cluttering my garden
with honeyed scent and
firecracker sparks of pink,
white and lavender
I know they’ve taken over–
smothering the lavender,
crowding out the delphinium and
the cranesbill geranium
Still, they grow so fiercely
so tenaciously
blossoming with such wild extravagance–
almost generous in their invasion
I haven’t the heart
to pull them out–
even as I mourn
what once
was there
©Molly Hogan, draft
This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater at her blog, The Poem Farm. Be sure to stop by and visit!
Nix the comfort zone 
We both found inspiration in our gardens this week! I never have the heart to pull volunteers, either. Yours are gorgeous! My grandmother called these flowers phlox. Is that what you call them?
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Yay for gardens, and yes, these are phlox–tall as opposed to creeping. They’re lovely but they really have totally taken over, edging out other favorites. I guess it’s a good problem to have?
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Love. Says so much so economically yet evocatively.
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Thanks, Judith. Being economical is typically not my forte!
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Oh, I love the celebration of these invaders! And I share your garden joy….”disarray” is such a great word! xo
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Thanks, Irene. I’m trying to see the beauty of the phlox rather than the many missing favorites they’ve edged out.
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What a GLORIOUS disarray! I, too, was tickled that you and Catherine both shared garden poems this week!
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The garden’s always a win when seeking inspiration!
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Your garden is gorgeous! I think “wild extravagance” captures it perfectly!
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It feels a bit like a hot mess, but I’m trying to love what’s there :).
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I hear you when you write that the lavender is ‘smothered’ but then I love “Still, they grow so fiercely”, a kind of respect you’re giving for them, too. It looks like a beautiful problem to have, Molly! I just read a garden article that cautioned “Don’t cut back, don’t cut back! The tiny things are preparing for winter and need all the help they can get. Thanks for writing what many feel!
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The gardener’s conundrum, right? I tend to let the garden do what it wants to do, but this year I’ve missed seeing the complexity of blossoms as phlox has taken over. I also don’t cut back until the spring so that the birds can enjoy all the seeds and stalks 🙂 Nice to know that the plants are benefiting too!
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Your poem and image are both breathless 💙 I feel the exuberance in both, and I like the slightly bittersweet ending too! BTW is that pink phlox I see in there, any suggestions for keeping phlox green and not drying out… Sadly, mine withers away after blooming.
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It is phlox and phlox and more phlox! lol I’m sorry I don’t have a tip. I suspect the amount of rain we’ve had this year has helped them stay green.
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Perhaps the rain, yes 🙌 The last few weeks it’s been exorbitantly hot and no rain. And today it’s not even 60 yet, that’s our bouncingly predictably unpredictable Chicago weather…
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We’ve been in the high 80s most of this week but that’s been interspersed with torrential downfalls. Crazy!
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My parents always had very different approaches to gardening – my dad was all about order and tidiness and control, and when he passed away, my mother finally let her gardening spirit take over, and celebrated her small spot of nature in all its wild and unruly glory.
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This is such an interesting perspective on your parents. It makes me realize how much our gardens reveal about ourselves. I’m all about messy gardens, but I suspect a bit of balance might help mine out. This might be true in other aspects of my life as well! lol
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I called a friend to help me with my yard this summer and she is a friend to weeds. She’s more of a natural gardener. She would love your garden and your poem. I bet your garden invites all sorts of pollinators.
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The pollinators do love the phlox and I frequently get to watch the blossoms cascade in the wake of a foraging hummingbird.
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Oh I love the dance-y disarray! I just planted a gazillion perennials hoping next year I’ll get that mussy, colorful look! “Wild extravagance” – indeed!
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Yay for a “gazillion perennials!” I do love the mussy look, too, but have to figure out how to make room for all 🙂
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LOVE this…and I so “get” the sentiment. I like the pretty weeds as much as the flowers any day. “firecracker pink” is now my favorite color. Crayola needs to know about this.
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Thanks, Linda, and, OH! Wouldn’t it be fun if Crayola had a whole garden-themed series of crayons!?
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I don’t have much of a garden partly be the deer eat so much of it. Your garden is such a celebration of plant life and I get why you can’t pull the overflow out.
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It’s such a dilemma! lol
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Volunteers are so tenacious! But they add a surprising loveliness (most of the time) to a garden. I always wonder how they got there. I can feel the wonder and sorrow in your poem.
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Thanks, Rose. I’m so glad you picked up on both emotions, as that was my intent.
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Molly, I agree with you that September gardens continue to blossom with wild extravagance now. The word disarray is just what my gardens are but in my heart they become the gathering of nature’s summer fulfillment.
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I love the lens you choose for your garden, Carol! “The gathering of nature’s summer fulfillment”–yes!
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Oh, this is so lovely. I love “almost generous in their invasion.” I’m not a gardener but my husband is, so I get secondhand garden joy and bittersweetness. You captured it so well, Molly.
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Thanks so much, Karen.
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My garden is in disarray right now too. I love the line: “blossoming with such wild extravagance.”
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It really has been extravagant. We’ve had to fight our way down the path after rainfalls! The plants are taking over 🙂
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“almost generous in their invasion” is a great line, as others are saying. Our small rock garden is WAY out of hand and has turned itself (with a lot of non-help from me) into a goldenrod patch.
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Ooooh…a rock garden! How lovely that must be!
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Your garden is beautiful Molly. I also understand leaving the volunteers. Phlox has grown well for me before but so far I’ve chosen not to have any in our gardens at the cabin. I’ll have to look for more inspiration from my garden though – Nice job!
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I’m reconsidering the phlox and may just leave it to blaze its glory and consider other options for the previous garden denizens.
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Yes, sometimes those “volunteers” can be so lovely!
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Absolutely gorgeous, poem and photograph. So much of life is generosity and grief, and your poem captures it all. I wish I could walk into that photo… xo, a.
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I’m so glad that mix of feelings came through. Thanks again for hosting! PS Feel free to come walk in my garden anytime 🙂
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