Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wednesday Workday

Today it rained.  The first drops of water in April.  Made me happy I spent the time over the weekend to re-do a small area of the back garden. 

Remember that gorgeous primrose path I had two summers ago?
As much as I loved it and was initially happy to let the primroses spread, I didn't expect them to be a bully.  It was like a pretty 8th grader turning into a high school mean girl.  They took everything in sight - trying to choke out perennials and even a rose bush. 
Primrose has taken that entire left corner and is overgrowing all the ground cover right of the path.
I finally resorted to Round-up - seriously, I pulled and pulled and pulled without making a dent, so finally only pulled close to things I wanted to save and then hit the rest of the area with killer - many square feet.
Nearly everything is dead now.
Then it was time for a re-design.

There was one "good" and two nearly-choked-out Stokes lilies [Stokesia l. 'Mmary Gregory'] that I moved to better positions, and then I went looking.

Unexpectedly, I found some pretty Forget-Me-Nots at the farmers' market and added seven ajugas [Ajuga reptans 'Purple Brocade'].  Once I had it all laid out and soaked the pots, I was ready to dig some holes. 
A bag of mulch - to help with our early drought - and it's all done.  And then, today, we got rain!
Come back in July, and let's see how it's doing.

5 comments:

  1. You've been working hard. Look forward to July pictures!

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  2. I know, I know...rain is good. It's good for the fern that I forgot to water since last weekend and the flowers that I just planted in their huge pots 2 weeks ago, it just completely saps my motivation and will to be productive. I am totally addicted to the sun.

    I never realized that primrose could be so aggressive. Its name sounds so proper and ladylike. Who knew?? Looking forward to July pictures! Also, a lot of those flower photos in yesterday's post were actually for you. :)

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  3. Isn't it great spending some time in the garden and starting something new? It's what I love about gardening: you can always change things. I am looking forward to the results.

    It could be worse having primrose all over the place, it could be spurge. There are times for use of Roundup.

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  4. I didn't know primrose were so invasive. I buy them in little pots in the late winter. I think our summers are too hot. I have violets everywhere and Roundup doesn't do one thing to them. We have a bumper crop this year. Enjoy your new garden. Bonnie

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    Replies
    1. Ha. Primrose spend the winter planning the overtaking of the garden. I laugh when I see them being sold at the garden center. "Come dig them up from my garden!" I want to tell people.

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