Not a food-related post today, but just a nice reminder from our trip that sometimes you get to see the fruits of your labors in a surprising and gratifying way. These two trees are in the front of our old house in Northern Virginia where we lived from 1994-2009. We planted them when Gideon was a baby/toddler–I think he may have been a year and a half old. I remember that we did some gardening in the front yard with him sitting out there in his playpen with us. Jim and I pondered and pondered about what trees to choose and decided on the contrast of the Japanese red maple with the Kousa dogwood. The photograph doesn’t do the dogwood justice; it was covered with blooms. Kousas are so much nicer than the regular dogwoods as they bloom quite a bit later and their blossoms are longer-lasting than the regular ones. I keep saying  that I want to plant one here, as they are hardy to zone 4. Since they bloom later in the season they are less likely than the earlier-flowering ones to have their buds killed by a freeze. Seeing the spectacular results of our efforts over two decades ago is a nice spur for me to get going on planting one now. They take awhile to get going, and we aren’t necessarily going to be at this house for 20 more years! Maybe I’d better go over to the garden center today and see if they have any in stock.

Is there a project you need to start so that you can see the results down the road?

A Lovely Payoff