Why not the whole story?

Maybe I am just getting to be a disgruntled woman (la malcontenta in Italian), but ...

I just read a good article in the email from Fine Gardening magazine about the deer repellents used by the author. Two in particular that caught my eye were Milorganite fertilizer (fine) granules and Bobbex liquid (for spraying). They seemed easy to use and effective, but having looked into deer replellents in the past, I always wonder about offensive odors to humans. Nothing about odors was mentioned. So I did some internet checking -- wow -- while these products seem to work, they are malodorous for quite a while after applying. One reviewer went so far as to say that he almost could not remove the odor from the clothes and shoes he wore while spraying!

Personally, I think the author could have "delicately" mentioned the strong odor -- that should have been part of the article. I want to repel the deer but maybe not at that price. Maybe I just have to keep looking, or at least, know what I am getting into. Fortunately, we do have internet sites with reviews of products. I used the general internet and Amazon (one of my favorite shopping places).

Oh well, I guess besides "buyer beware" we need to remember "reader beware".

Just my opinion.

Lordy, didn't it rain!

Well, between the hot weather which does me in, and the rain which keeps me in, and "imperial entanglements" which keep me elsewhere, nothing much is getting done -- except the weeds are having a field day!

Home Depot still does not have my Belgium blocks so the driveway edging is not finished. I am almost out of topsoil so I'll have to buy more before the fall planting. Of course, I can always stop buying plants and save a lot of money. I wish I had my grandmother's friends who shared plants or even my grandmother's talent ... oh well.

One bit of good news is that Perennial Gardens in Bedford sent me another "gift card" -- pretty neat -- $60 off $200 or $20 off $75! When buying plants, it is very easy to spend $75! I bought some very nice plants with their spring gift card. I wish Home Depot would have some coupons for discounts on plants. I got a good one very early in the season for "buy two plants and get a third one free", but the subsequent ones were not for things I needed.

I did buy some nice perennials from HD last week: Penstemon 'Red Riding Hood' Rudbeckia hirta 'Toto Rustic' and Alcea rosea ’Fiesta Time’ (hollyhock) . The hollyhock is a biennial but maybe it will set seed or just come back next summer anyway. All the plants have red flowers. I also bought two Virburnum dentata 'Morton' . It's a great shurb from what I have read. I planted them along the property boundary behind the Cottage Garden.

I am still working on my "new and improved" Cottage Garden plan. It's not progressing too well --it just does not want to organize! Maybe it's trying to tell me something. I have been rereading some of my flower books for ideas. I just reread Country Flowers by Rob Proctor -- it was good for morale also. He has a light and breezy and informative style. Some of his comments made me laugh. (See the book review in Books, Magazines, & Web Sites page.)

Too hot for me

I haven't been posting for a while mainly due to the heat interfering with my gardening stamina.

Deer ate some new tips on some of my perennials--he, she, or they, reached in over the three-foot turkey wire fence we had put around the Cottage Garden. We have plans for putting a taller fence (probably that green "deer mesh" fencing) in the back. I am looking into various deer sprays (non-smelly) and some deer repellent granules. Two that have good reviews are Deer Scram (granules) and Deer Stopper (spray). I did buy some Deer No-No "cakes" that you hang near the plants to be protected. They are quite expensive. I hope they work. They will be used with the spray and granule methods, as soon as I get organized.

I am still working on the next iteration of perennial placement in the Cottage Garden. I hope it will be mostly right. The problem is that however much I investigate, until the plant gets planted in my garden and I see how it grows, and do I really like it, it is just a "maybe", and the iterive process continues...

I still cannot find the right plant (even as a trisl) for the bottom end of the garden. I really think I need a small shrub, but can't find one that I like there. Perhaps a Butterfly Bush that doesn't grown taller than five-feet? I like lota of shrubs but not for this spot. Well, this too continues...

We have been buying lots of red slabs from Home Depot to make mowing strips for the gardens behind the den and living room. They make a nice edge but they will only br done in this area. After a while, the cost mounts and we are tired of setting slabs, anyway.

We started to put Belgium blocks around the driveway. We had some left over from a scrapped project. Unfortunately, we did not have enough and for the mo', Home Depot is out also.

I did buy another plant from HD: Rudbeckia hirta 'Irish Spring', It's very pretty with a cream-color eye.... I planted it in the Den Garden to somewhat balance the Helenium 'Mardi Gras'. Photo from HD Garden Site.

Gardening comments

The weather has become hot and dry, and the weeds are as high as an elephant's eye. Between my non-gardening life and all the landscaping organization I have been trying to do, the weeds in my Cottage Garden have been having a "field" day (no pun indended-- I think). My helper has pulled the weeds in the landscaping area in the front of the house and he keeps the grass under control, but I am still in charge of the weeds in the flower gardens.

Yesterday, I started to weed in earnest. It will take a while since I can only work before and after the sun is on the garden. Oh well, I always have been a neglectful weeder. I would like to use my helper, but he doesn't always know weeds from plants, so I have to watch him carefully and to use him in areas where he can't go too wrong. I think that by the end of this season, he will be much improved. It also doesn't help that his English in minimal and my Spanish doesn't include enough gardening terms!

My Clematis 'Jackmanii ' is blooming like crazy -- what a gorgeous flower. Next summer I will have to work out a true trellis for it. This summer I have it growing over tall branches stuck in the ground. I am waiting for my other clematis to start to grow strongly.

A couple of Filipendula venustra from the old garden have decided to grow. One is in a good spot; the other will be moved next to it in the fall. Also Lysimachia clethroides (Goose-Neck Loosestrife) has made a big massed display in one of the old gardens, and an old pink phlox (named unknown) has appeared. That plant too, will be moved.

Enough for today -- time for a bubble bath and to move on.

Garden doing well

The Cottage Garden is doing well, except for the weeds that are growing too quickly in some areas.

I bought a Helenium 'Mardi Gras' from Home Depot last week and finally planted it. The flowers are very striking and the plant is an upright type. Obviously, the flowers make the plant. (Photo from Home Depot Garden Club.) I was going to put this plant in the Cottage Garden but since I have decided that no more plants will go there until I work out the new garden plan, I planted it in the Den Gardenette. I had a nice spot since we took down "Dwarf" Alberta spruce. I probably will leave it there. It adds nice color to the garden.

I have decided that the only way to bring the Cottage Garden into line, is to plan it from scratch as if there are no plants in it. This will insure that I get the plants I want in the spots that I want. After this is drawn up, I can decide which of the plants that are already in the garden can stay where they are and which have to be moved. I tried "merging" the new plants that I want with what is there already, but it doesn't work.

When my landscaping helper came yesterday, I decided to have him work on edging the parking area of our driveway with Belgium blocks . This went very slowly due to having to neated the edge first. I was disappointed that he didn't finish the back edge of 33 feet; thus the area now looks more ragged that before. Hopefully, it will be finished soon. I want to plant blue Siberian irises behind the back edge.

Home Depot-Get your act together!

The plant department needs to be "pulled together". Doesn't anbody there pay attention to what is being put out?

Once again, a very large amount of a certain plant with NO name tag, just a generic tag for generic perennials! I asked in the garden shop if anyone knew the name of the plant and no one did. I knew that the plant looked so much like an eryngium that it most assuredly was, but I wanted to know "which one". The plant code just went to a generic perennial page on the Garden Club website! Ye Gad!!!

Adding to that-- one register was held up because there was no barcode on the plant the person wanted to buy (or nothing came up in the computer), and HD was having a hard time finding someone who would know.

And, the scanner on the other register was broken and was waiting to be fixed!

Anybody there know how to run a business?

And, don't get me started on the Paint department and trying to get a paint color mixed!

The Name Game

As I was planning the areas to be planted, I realized I was confusing myself because I wasn't always calling my various gardens and gardenettes by a unique name because I couldn't remember them! Then I remembered in Gertrude's book (yes, we are on a first name basis) her garden areas had names, and I remembered that other gardens I have visited had "named" gardens. Well, of course, areas have name designations throughout the world -- so why not my garden? I had sort-of given names to areas, but as I found out, I keep inadvertently changing them. Sometimes, the light bulb takes a long time to go on ...

OK, time to pick names and stick with them! The important thing here is that the name must make a good fit so that I (and the rest of my family) can remember it. I love the phrase cottage garden but I do not have a cottage. What I do have, though, is a gazebo...and it just turns out that the gazebo is at the end of the "summer perennial border" and could be considered the "cottage" for the garden. Thus I do have a cottage garden. Besides, I once read that the definition of cottage garden was "controlled chaos" -- I just love that phrase and it fits my garden to a "T".

~~Official Name-- I hearby rename the "summer perennial border" (and all its various alias) The Cottage Garden.

Well, that wasn't too bad... so moving right along (as Fozzy used to say)...

The other side of the original perennial bed oval may have a perennial or two, but will mainly have shrubs. Now, I have other shrub areas, so I need something specific... hmmmm...

~~Official Name-- The shrub area facing the Cottage Garden will be the Cottage Shrub Border. This name does not exactly trip off the tongue, but it is consistent.



I thought it was time to add a plot plan. This is not the neatest; it really needs to be redrawn, not just scribbled over, but at least I have this.

The area with the copper beech as its focal point will be known as the Copper Beech Garden (very catchy).

There are areas not on this drawing in the back yard : the Porch Garden, the Den Garden, the Linden Garden, the Greenhouse Garden, and others that have no names yet, or names that change daily!

Enough of this -- I am exhausted! Thank you for bearing with me. This blog was basically for me to help organize my thoughts.

The Copper Beach Garden

While I mull over the patio area in front of the gazebo, and about five other perennial/shrub "gardenettes", I will also mull over the plants for the new area opened up in the Copper Beach Garden.

I had my gardening helper move the brick blocks in the back of the area out about 4 feet. The new edge tapers some to 3 ft. The new area is about 22 feet long and filled with topsoil from Lee's Nursery. The brick blocks are cement blocks so we filled the hollows with soil to make places for small edging plants.

My husband made a request for day lilies to edge the interior area. I like the day lilies and I think I will add some Siberian iris to extend the bloom time. I buy my day lilies from Gilbert Wild by mail. I usually order the reblooming collection and order a few extra fragrant favorites, such as Hyperion. I have always received good plants from them.

Still in the Garden

Another trip to Home Depot this Thursday and I only bought one plant -- a white physostegia (Obedient Plant) 'Miss Manners'... ...The plant looked good, and it was actually on my list! I would like the pink version also, but did not see any. There were some other nice plants in the daisy family, but I decided not to deviate except for something extraordinary.

I just planted it but not in the official perennial border which I have now given the official name: The Cottage Garden (the cottage in this case is the gazebo). I have decided that-- unless I find something really extraordinary-- no more plants will go in this summer season. I really have to get back to my original "controlled chaos cottage garden" design instead of the present "un-controlled chaos cottage garden". It looks very nice, but I have lost the spots for some of the plants that I really do want. This also means that I will have to order some plants through the mail in the spring (perhaps even this fall) and travel (by car) farther afield for my plants. I also planted three Asiatic lilies that I bought from HD in the Copper Beach Garden.

Perhaps I should fix part of the future Cottage Shrub Border for ad-hoc perennials? This way I can have my cake and eat it too. I will have to remove a lot of weeds and then turn over and amend the soil in a section. The shrubs that have survived in it are doing well and I think that shrubs can take more "abusive" soil than perennials. anyway.

I have a great spot near to the door of the greenhouse where I have tried to grow a kerria (Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora')...... I love that shrub but I have never found a spot that it likes, so I am giving up, at least for the mo'. A butterfly bush has planted itself (literally) there and I will leave it. At least, I will have some shrub there. I assume if the shrub grew itself there, it will survive there. Someday, somewhere, I will have a kerria. The other shrub that doesn't seem to like me is mock orange (Philadelphus 'Snowbelle')... ...On my second try for the right spot I planted it in the back row of the Cottage Garden. At least, it bloomed! It still looks rather straggly though.

Speaking of shrubs, last week Home Depot had a few I liked but I didn't want to get sidetracked from my perennials. Of course, when I went this week, they were all gone.

On this trip to HD I did get info on the delphinium that I bought last week without a plant sticker: Delphinum elatum 'Guardian Blue' and the most magnificant shade of blue it is.. ...

Many bugs and creepy crawlers are in the great outdoors these days, so I haven't been going out much, and besides the heat/sun does me in quickly. One only needs one serious bout of heat exhaustion (about 10 years ago) to learn to avoid the heat. Also, knowing people with skin cancer, can also smarten you up in a hurry.

Photos from the Home Depot Garden Club site.

And the Rains Came and Came ...

It almost the end of June and we are still having much more rain than the norm. Pretty soon, it will be time to build the ark.

I went to Home Depot today -- they had a wonderful selection of plants! I bought a bunch. Right now, they are all sitting on my porch and looking very pretty and there they will stay until the rain stops and the soil dries out some.

Home Depot had some plants marked down to $5 so I bought another perovskia (Russian sage) and was tempted with the hosta, but didn't buy any. I like them as edging plants so I may go back for some.

It is getting very buggy here: gnats, mosquitoes, and some bugs that take big bites out of my skin and some bugs that I never can see but they bite! I did buy a great hat with mosquito netting so that my face and neck are protected and I never go out without a long sleeve shirt.

Just a Bunch of Conundrums

I haven't written in a while due to my other life getting in the way and a number of garden discouragements.

Saw a woodchuck eating some of my perennials, ditto a deer -- chased them both away -- but they will return. I try not to hate too many things, but, my goodness, I hate those two.

I bought a phlox 'David' from Wayside late last fall. It was not growing very well, and now that the deer ate the leaves (of which there were not many), I doubt that it will survive. Maybe the deer was trying to put the plant out of its misery!

Many of the late season shopping at Wayside did not produce plants that came to life this year or are growing well. Remind me never to order so late in the season! Sale or no sale, it was a waste of money.

Actually, maybe even late spring season sales are not a good thing. I ordered from Bluestone Perennials many years ago and always loved the service and the plants. I was sorely tempted to order a number of their sale plants late this spring -- the prices were excellent -- but remembering the problems with the late-fall season plants ordered from Wayside, I decided not to order. I was afraid that the the warm weather would cause the plants to rot before I received them. So should one order "end-of-'season' " plants or not? Maybe very early in the "end-of-season"?

I think that the Inkberry that I bought from Costco is dying. I know that it was very pot bound and the roots did not look very lively, but I thought that with "tender loving care" it would survive -- we shall see.

Well, so far, I am not happy with mail-order and with buying locally. What to do? This is certainly an imperfect world!

The Lazy S website has some wonderful plants. I have often ordered day lilies from Wild in July and later, and had no problems -- maybe I will be brave and do a test order from Bluestone and Lazy Z.

My husband was at Home Depot yesterday and noticed that a lot of new plants were arriving. I may go there this afternoon -- perhaps I can buy some nice plants, growing well, and not root-bound. Actually, I am not faulting Home Depot since all the nurseries from whom I purchased this spring had the same problem.

My gardening helper came yesterday and moved a landscaping wall away from the plants about four feet. He did a great job moving and leveling the wall. Now,I just have to buy soil to fill! I will probably buy from Lee's Nursery again. The soil was good and the service quick! This was the bright spot in my gardening world.

Enough for now.

Disappointing Plant selection

I went to Home Depot in Norwalk yesterday -- very disappointing in types of perennials and quality. Many plants are in shade when they should be in sun; plants not watered; plants with tags telling everything but the name of the plant, and some plants with no name and no information! ... And one rude garden employee. I will visit the Fairfield HD. I often find what I am looking for, and more, at that store.

Oh my gosh ... just when I decided that buying locally grown was the best way to buy--well I still believe that, assuming one can find the desired, quality plants without having to scour the countryside!

I did buy three plants (I had a "buy 3, get 1 free" coupon):
Veronica spicata 'Red Fox'... ... Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage)... ... and another Nepeta 'Walker's Low' (Catmint).... Photos from the Home Depot Garden Club site.

It is raining today, so I probably will not plant.

Hotter than anything, today!

We may have a thunderstorm; or we may not have a thunderstorm! I just love the weather here, so decisive! Tomorrow should be even hotter. I will have to water for sure.

I did get to give my perennials in the summer border a refreshing spray of Miracle-Gro. I use a hand sprayer so I can try to skip the weeds and just do the plants. If I think a "weed" looks interesting, I spray it also. I am constantly looking for attractive "natives" since they will survive the best.

My neighbor's tree service is here again today. I am amazed at how slow they are. I guess they get paid by the hour! I think they may even beat the road crews! There is a lot of money in this area--must be nice not to have to care how much you pay for anything! OK, now that I got that off my chest, time to go back to gardening.

I am still trying to work out my shade garden plants. I love hostas. Given enough water, they can grow in quite a bit of sun, also.

If it gets too hot today, I will give up the gardening and go into my nice cool "dungeon" and work on my dollhouses. The little people haven't seen me for a while--I'm sure they miss me!

Hot as anything!

Well , 85 degrees today with higher tomorrow! May have some thundershowers tonight--but I may water anyway--this weather never really knows what it wants to do!

Spotted the first woodchuck and saw a few plants (thankfully just a couple) where it ate some new growth. I put some chicken wire fencing around the plants until I figure out how to discourage the horror. Gardening with wildlife (at least the animal kind) is a misnomer; you can only garden "for" them, not "with" them--they don't share!

I don't think it lives on my property-- just comes for a while and eats and hides under my gazebo. I guess I should tack wire to the base going into the ground.

Fortunately, my gardening helper is here again this summer (from Guatemala). He is doing a lot of cleaning up and neatening after our weird winter and spring. He is very good with plants and is a hard worker; thank heavens, since this property needs lots of work. We have finally gotten to the point that, if it rains, we can walk in the yard and not sink into mud.

I have started to make sun charts for the summer perennial border. We took down some trees and cleared out some areas, and the remaining trees have grown much since we moved here. I do not think that the sun charts I made so many years age (assuming I could find them) would be of much use. It looks like my summer border will not be in full sun but almost sunny and the border that will be the shrub border will be in full sun. I had not expected quite that.

I am also starting my almost daily regimen of a light spray of Miracle-Gro on the plants. I also lightly fertilized the border with 10-10-10, and have been trying to finish wood-chip mulching the border, also.

I am letting a lot of "weeds" grow around the property, just in case they may be "escapees" from my garden of many years ago. In a couple of weeks though, I will start making decisions as to whether they get moved into the border or get mowed down.

All planted...time to buy more!

The baby butterfly bush that I transplanted yesterday was dug up during the night. I guess some animal thought there was something to eat under it? Weird. I replanted it and put some wood chips around the plant. Maybe I will also add a temporary large rock near it to discourage visitors.

The red-twig dogwood seems to be in an area that is more shady than I thought it would be. I haven't decided if we should move it now or wait until the fall, assuming it survives.

The last three plants were moved into their permanent spots. Permanent at least for this season; depending on how the plant combinations work out, some may get shuffled about in the never-ending search for perfection. And then there are those that die for some reason or another and will have to be replaced.

Planted: Liriope
... Threadleaf Coreopsis ... Blue Fescue

Another day, another plant

It was a wonderful morning outside: cool with a breeze and I was out of much of the sun. It lasted until almost noon. I spent quite a while rearranging the new plants -- it's easy to move them when they are in pots ... this way and that way; that way and this way ... Finally, I decided to stop and get to planting. I didn't get to plant them all as it got too hot after a few. I planted:
Echinops 'Taplow Blue' ... Achillea 'Paprika' ... Artemisia 'Powis Castle' .

I also noticed another 'free' butterfly bush baby plant in the garden, so I moved it out along the boundary rock wall. I also found a group of blue Siberian iris growing where they were not needed and moved them into the garden as an edging plant.

My property has a few autumn olive , rugosa rose , and barberry growing places where they are not really needed. I am going to transplant them to the boundary rock wall for "free" screening. I will also buy some specific plants to fill in.

Today's doings

Two of the end-of-season plants from Wayside did not make it. Unfortunately, the plants are all sold out so that I can only get a credit on my account (I would have preferred a refund). I guess that is one way to force repeat orders. I am not happy about this, but there is nothing to be done.

I finally planted two of the Perennial Garden plants Solidago 'Fireworks' ..and Veronicastum virginicum ('Culvers Root')...

..

Only five more to go. These will be done tomorrow. It is imteresting that all the plants I have bought this year, and from a number of different sellers, have all been pot bound. I can't remember if this was the case last year.

Many years ago, when I first started my perennial and shrub borders, I almost exclusively bought through the mail. Last year and this year, I have been buying potted plants. I have come to the conclusion that there is not much difference in the cost and I can pick the plant of my choice. It looks as if the cost of mail order plants has risen in cost more than the local stuff. Unless it is a plant that can't be found locally, the cost of the mail order plants plus the shipping charges, it is cost effective to buy locally--and one doesn't have the waiting to see if the plants survive the trip!

My "uncontrolled chaos cottage garden" has some wonderful blooms including a giant foxglove that is a remnant from my original garden.

Found another nursery

I received an offer I couldn't refuse through the mail from Perennial Gardens in Bedford, New York: a gift card for $20 off a purchase of $75. Now, at first glance, $75 seemed like a lot of money to have to spend but my husband pointed out that plants are not cheap so it wouldn't be difficult to spend that much!

We went to look over their plants and of course spent more than that, but with the discount only spent $75. Their stock is good, so I consider this a good find. Now I just have to find the right spots in the garden and then plant! Well, Scarlett, tomorrow is another day.

I still need more plants for my semi-shade garden under the linden (gee, someone should write a song like that). The linden is getting ready to bloom -- wonderful white flowers and scent!

My redbud tree isn't looking all that great. I don't know if it likes the spot it is in anymore; and my husband keeps pruning it when its branches interfere with the satelite reception. Redbeds are tought trees, so maybe it will just endure, anyway.

Once again, my "Porch Garden" is being overtaken by the hygrangea and the Miss Kim lilac.I guess they really liked the weird winter and spring weather. Both plants are loaded with blooms. So far, the standard irises in the front of them are doing well and are far enough out of their way -- I hope. I guess, except for some low border plant (maybe aguga or liriope) nothing else will go in that area. I did move the spirea and mock orange out and into the perennial border where they are much happier.

We have been having non-rain weather and warm at that! Interesting that the soil is still fairly moist, but I will have to watch carefully so plants do not dry out. I will probably do some selective watering tomorrow.

OK, time to sign off and look at my border plot for tomorrow's toil.

May Flowers bring Pilgrims

Just an old joke: April showers bring May flowers; what do May flowers bring?

Two of the plants that I bought from Wayside very late last year did not make it. Lesson learned -- order eary in the fall and forget about waiting for late season sales if one is buying through the mail.

I have been buying some plants from Home Depot and actually planted them (well, the liriope is still waiting, but at least only one plant is waiting).The soil is still moist but diggable. Plants are coming up and some of them lost their markers and some of them I have no recollection of planting, nor do I know what they are, except that they look vagely familar! I guess this will be a wait and see season. I hope that they are all worthwhile.

The area around the Linden tree is fairly shady so I am trying to pretty-up the back edge with some shade tolerant plants: Bleeding Heart (pink and white), yellow Columbine, and a red azalea, and some Hosta. So far, it looks good. I hope the mix of sun and shade is right. I am also going to trim some of the lower branches; the tree grows wide and we are back to being "bopped" on the forehead by them. I try not to prume too much because the tree is well-established and has a wonderful shape.

The moisture laiden winter and spring certainly caused some plants to shoot up in growth as I have never seen. My purple beech (a slow grower) put on at least two feet!

My gardening spirit still has not gotten up to snuff -- but I keep pushing my gardening along.

Mud, mud, and more mud

I know that other parts of the country have it much worse than we do, but still ... my gosh ... I surrender! Pretty soon, the water table will be above ground and we shall be swimming next to the ducks that like the large "lakes" in my back yard.

Maybe the end of the world is coming? ... Just being facetious ... I think ... Anyway, I have some plants to plant but it's all mud out there now. I bought my beautiful Foxglove into the house as a temporary houseplant ... at least, I hope it's temporary. The radar map doesn't show any respite until Sunday.

Oh well, enough for this day.

Planted some shrubs

With my husband's help, we planted two shrubs along the property border: Inkberry....

and the red-twig dogwood.. ..that we bought from Costco. I think I should have bought two Dogwoods, but the thought of putting up with Costco traffic and sales lines, got me to think again.

It was amazing-- we actually found friable soil in the holes and no large rocks! We still had to add some soil from our purchased soil pile and some peat moss, but that was easy. We did not water them in because the plants had been well-watered by me, the soil was already moist, and rain was on the way. We put some of the wonderful wood chips our tree service made for us around the plants, and called it a successful day.

A couple of the plants that I bought from Wayside so very late last year do not show signs of life. I will write to them and ask for replacements.

I still can't quite get into the planting spirit -- I guess the winter-spring weather just took its toll.

I may garden this year, after all

What a winter ... what a spring ... I can finally walk in my yard and not feel mud under my feet. I suspect that the water table is not very far underground which will be great in July and August, but a horror right now. My neighbors with sump pumps have finally stopped pumping and my neighbors with wetlands are no longer seeing standing water. While I was definitely unhappy with all the snow, it seems my plants loved being under three to four feet of the white stuff! Amazingly, all the following rain did not cause them to die of "wet feet".

I never got all my wood chips moved to my garden so now I guess its time has come. I was hoping that my landscaping helper would return this year but I have not heard from him. There is simply too much for me to do, so I may have to find another.

I noticed that a number of foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) from the old garden and a nuber of reseeds are alive and well. I love foxgloves and always try to grow as many varieties as I can find.

Today, my husband and I went to Costco for food, and I looked at plants. They had a nice variety but I wonder how the plants survive in that closed environment. People were buying a lot of them so maybe the plants won't have to stay there long. I bought an Inkberry (Ilex glabra), a large group of generic Hosta, and the Dogwood with red stems (Latin name eludes me, for the mo'). I gave them a BIG drink of water when I got them home. Tomorrow I will give them another drink, a spray of Miracle-Gro, and try to figure out where they should be planted! So much for advance planning.

I once read that the definition of a cottage garden was "controlled chaos". My cottage gardens are "almost controlled chaos". I refer to them lovingly as romantic gardens!