Thursday, April 19, 2012

Out of My Comfort Zone..

... but in a good way. 
 
Everything is from my garden and much of it from my new cutting garden:  allium, stock, bachelor's buttons and poppies are all new.  The lilac and salvia have never looked better than when paired with their new annual friends.  
 
Thanks Belinda!

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.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

What's Going On?


April 17?

I keep listening for a band to play "The World Turned Upside Down".

Monday, April 16, 2012

Lost innocence

Today is five years.


In honor of 32 who died and thousands more who were left to mourn.

Image by Ben Lansing.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sunday in the Garden

It feels like June today.  

Native Honeysuckle


Deutzia  - a creeping form - Deutzia crenata 'Nikko'

Lilac 'Miss Kim'



Iris.  In April?