Today in the Garden

The yellow bowl is a Corelleware one that I found at an estate sale this weekend. I stuck it in a tomato cage and it looks pretty good. Not high art, but I like it (for now).
Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst White" in bloom.

Pulsatilla Vulgaris, or pasque flower, drooping after the rain.

I want to be awesome--like people who give away manure for free

I prepared the middle bed for planting last weekend. I was planning on buying what I needed: compost, topsoil, potting soil, and mulch. Well, Friday night I was browsing Craigslist and found someone who was giving away composted manure just a 25 minute drive away. I decided to give it a try. Of course, the books I read say to get all soil amendments from a  reputable source (read: expensive) so that there are no weeds and other bad actors in them. Impossible, I say! Nothing I have ever purchased for my garden has ever come free of weeds. I put it down, give it some water, and, Bam. Weeds. I feel anything is worth trying once--and its free!

I asked them why they were giving it away and they said, "So we don't have to spread it." Ok, but there are others on Craigslist who are charging. For example, $20/truckload, or the carpetbagger on the East side who is charging $20/bushel basket. And these fine people were not ignorant of the market. We all laughed openly at the bushel-basket-guy. No, they just wanted it get rid of it and do it for free. Not only that, he shoveled it into sturdy feed bags and loaded up my poor Camry's trunk. I shudder to think of what would have happened if I had used my wimpy garbage bags. Meanwhile we chatted about everything and I learned that they've been fostering special needs kids for 23 years. 

That's the kind of awesome I want to be: willing to give, willing to serve, willing  to love.

Site Log II

I find that now I have revealed all my garden areas in my site log, I have less motivation to show my non-garden areas. Well, potential-garden areas, actually.. I think if we live in this house for too many more years, it will only be a massive, rambling garden. I like the sound of that...

Next on the log is the back border. There are some hostas, daylillies, brunnera, and maiden's rocket (who came up with that name?) here. I'm not sure what's mine and what's the neighbors.

Then comes the right side which has several lilacs, a rampant and contrary forsythia, and a rose that-from the height it reaches- would like to be growing up a trellis.



Next is the pine area, which is Marma's favorite hang-out spot. It was also the site of a carefully fought battle against poison ivy (My arch nemesis. There are weeds that I despise, but only p.i. can hurt me back). So far, I am The Winnah. In this area are lilly of the valley, really big violets, rhododendrons, rose of sharon, a very unhappy holly, pachysandra (ugh), tons of baby maple trees, and all the pinecones we throw back at the trees that shed them. All of these plants were here when we arrived. This is not my favorite place, but Marma likes it,, so I'm not messing with it