Save Comic Sans

Late last night I learned there is a movement afoot [always wanted to say that; it sounds so Sherlock Holmes!] to ban the use of Comic Sans font - one of my favorite fonts. Apparently some folks think that Comic Sans is overused and inappropriately used and so they are working to rid the world of this scourge.

Now I agree with them that Comic Sans is used inappropriately. Clearly it's a funster and should be used only in lighthearted ways, but if we start there what goes next? Helvetica, or Times New Roman, or Verdana?

Personally, I would ban Remedy. Fortunately, most folks got really tired of it a while ago, so you don't see it much any more. Dropped into a headline it can provide a bit of wow factor, but I once worked for a company that did an entire marketing presentation folder with multiple inserts all in Remedy. It was almost unreadable.

Another font that is becoming overused is Bank Gothic. I like it, too, but you see it in all sorts of odd places. Clearly it was meant to convey strength, calm and safety - can you say "bank"? - but you see it used for lots of other things now. Maybe we should ban it, too.

The leaders of the Ban Comic Sans movement are concerned that by the year 2050 it will have become the only font used. They say. "By the year 2022 the US Federal Reserve will have adopted Comic Sans as the official font for all United States currency." I kind of like the idea. If we keep Bank Gothic for a safe and solid feeling, then our money could get a little funkier. Or, maybe by 2050 it'll be funny money anyway, and the Comic Sans will be the right font after all.

However it goes, you'd better start choosing your three favorite fonts and protecting them!

Bullies in the Garden

Altho much of the weekend was spent working on the patio, there was still plenty else to do. Remember the plants I picked up along the way while I was getting supplies for the patio? - well they all needed to be planted. Most went somewhere in the purple river bed - either as accents or as purple plants, but in clearing space I found myself battling a bully - monarda.

About five years ago Mitchell's boss gave me three small pots of dark purple Monarda. It's a beautiful shade and the bees fight with the hummingbirds to get to the nectar, so it is a garden favorite. I love the smell of it, and the square stems, and the way it fills with bees. I love the color and the way it looks nestled in with the white Shasta Daisies. It's a favorite plant, and like most perennials it moves around a bit and the clump increases in size each year, but that's one of the joys of perennials. I like having extra plants to give away or to try somewhere else in the garden.

Apparently, tho, while I have been thinking of pavers and ponds, the bee balm brigade has tried to take the entire beach head of my garden. In short - it was everywhere! The river of purple was well on its way to being a river of bee balm. I had to dig out every single salvia, and the lilies and day lilies, and the hydrangea. Most of all I had to rescue the chrysanthemums, which were absolutely overgrown. I'm guessing I pulled a mile of monarda roots! It smelled great and I had all sorts of bees for company, but it had to come out. I suspect that I will need to give it some attention for the rest of the summer to keep the chrysanthemums clear.

One of the hard parts of gardening is deciding who's a bully. For five years monarda was a hero, filling in the blank spaces and providing great color and fragrance all summer long, and suddenly I have proclaimed it a menace. The shasta daisies could go that way any time. They spread more slowly, but their clumps are larger every year. The Obedient Plant is the same. It's currently in a place that's shadier than it really likes, so it isn't spreading at full speed, but it could go bully at any time. It's all a matter of context. As my garden changes and my plan matures, I suspect many old friends will have to be reigned in.

About the third year we were here and I had finished digging up the entire width of the backyard, and had a good many plants in place, Mitchell asked what I would do "now that the garden is finished". My reply as something like, "start moving things around". And now that's what it's all about.

I'm even more excited about my purple river now that I am beginning to see it - the salvia all came back and I have added some things this weekend and ordered a few more plants that should arrive soon, so it may be a reality by the middle of June. Then I will look around and see what I want to plan for next year.

Coming later this week: Mitchell's vegetable garden and The Big Project.

Let There Be Patio!

Creating - ok, building - the sitting place was not nearly as hard as I had feared. I was able to create the solid walkway with a matching paver and then it just grew from there. Because of the curve in the walkway, I had to play a bit with curve, but even that worked out well. I used the six slate squares to create a bit of design on either side of the walkway, which - I hope - draws the eye to the pond, and then filled in the rest as I went.

The hardest part was keeping it level. There is an incline from the front of the bed toward the back that rises about 2.5 inches overall. I decided to make the sitting area higher so that water would run off of it, rather than standing on it, so I had to add soil underneath the pavers nearer the front, but even that worked out ok. Approaching the sitting area from the front, there is a small step up - but it's clearly seen, so should not be a hazard for tripping. I ended up getting some half bricks and burying them under the very front edge of the front step. That gave it the stability it needed and let me get it settled well and level without the front tilting.

Around the pond I planted some sedum to help hold the soil and soften the edges and where the stones created "holes" around the edges I put groundcovers and small plants. I had to pull up a good bit of ground cover - mostly a creaping euonomyous, which will come back and help soften the edges.

The only potential problem child that I see so far is an iris at the front corner of the new space. I am afraid that water coming off the sitting area may stand there and - well, drown it. I will keep an eye on it this spring and try to move any standing water away and then transplant it in July to higher ground just in case. It's a huge pink iris that mother gave me, so I want to take good care of it.

The final step was to take some construction sand to fill the spaces between the pavers. I like the orangy color - which emphasizes the slight "sunray" effect that is caused by the curve of the walkway - and it's more course than play sand. I filled the spaces by hand and then watered it. Should have swept it first because the washing was too hard and moved a lot of the sand around. Once it dried I swept it back into the spaces and it looked fine. Will probably have to add more sand in a few days. We are due to have rain tonight, so that will help settle both the sand and the dirt under it, and I may need to fill a bit more.

Overall it took me 8 - 10 hours of work, and not too hard, plus about $25 in materials. Since I had about half of the stones to begin with, I saved a lot there. Of course, I spent it on other plants for the garden. But now I am ready to all it a patio!

What's new in blooms today?

Spring is coming on so fast, that it will soon be hard to keep up. The first (dark, dark pink) azaleas bloomed Saturday, and the first lavendar bloomed today. The woods hyacinths bloomed Saturday, too.


A word to the novice: This is not the way to set a patio to last forever. To do that one must dig out the space, fill with construction sand, level and then set the stones. I have done it the cheap and easy way and will pay for it over the years with heaving. I will have to relevel some of the stones every year. Since we will only use this patio for sitting and it will not get much foot traffic, I decided it was worth the risk.

Hoop Those Peonies!

While I was holed up in the house lamenting three days of cold and rain, the peonies grew - and I mean a lot! This afternoon I had to go digging in the garden shed for the hoops to get them supported before it was too late. Don't think I broke any; I was very careful and I even pinched out a few double buds. I've never actually done that before, altho I know you should if you want larger blooms. I've noticed that the side blooms are never as nice anyway and frequently they don't even bloom, so I thought I might as well spend a couple minutes pinching in hopes of a nicer display this spring.

I have a small stand of peonies in the back next to the path. The first one came from my aunt's garden after her death, so it is special. Unfortunately, it's not particularly pretty - a pale, pale pink - nearly white and I would like it better with more color. It means a lot, tho, since it was "family". I bought a variety of small, end-of-the-season sale plants two falls ago and they make up the rest of the bed. Most have not bloomed yet, so it will be interesting to see what I get this year - both in terms of color and time of bloom. I had them scattered all over the garden, but transplanted them all to one bed to maximize their bloom. You can see them in this photo, just beyond the glider.

The only reason that I noticed the peonies today was that I was working on Project #5 - the sitting area. After all the rain, it was sunny and much warmer today, but the ground is so wet that I didn't want to even try to work out there. Instead I made my first real trip to the garden center to look at pavers for the sitting area. "Look at" being synonymous with "buy", I came home with 10 pavers - and a few posies. My plan is to use the large pavers in the path as the starting point of the sitting area. I have some more of those stones, so will try to add one to the path to make a solid stretch of walk and then use the new brick pavers, plus the old brick and slate pavers I already have. Don't really have a plan; will just start laying them and see what happens.

You did want to know what flowers I brought home today, didn't you? First, I picked up a couple of bright pink dianthus to add to some boxes on the deck. The old dianthus are looking pretty ragged and can use the help. Also, two sweet basils for the herb barrel. Then the treasures: a lovely blue columbine - Aquileiga vulgaris 'Clemintine Blue' - that I will use as an accent in the purple river; an interesting Jacob's Ladder - Polemonium yezoense 'Purple Rain Strain' - that has small blossoms and dark (purple) leaves and stems in the colder months that will apparently turn more green as the weather heats up; and a beautiful bright yellow Iceland Poppy 'Champagne Bubbles'. It is much to bright for me - usually - but it will be gorgeous nestled down on the edge of the river with all the blues and purples. I have wanted a poppy for a while, and hope I can make this one live!!

So, I will try to finish the sitting area tomorrow or over the weekend. In the meantime, enjoy your garden, too.