Happy flower days
| The bulbs are in bloom, we just spent another $300 in plants at Behnke’s, and I am happy! The front of the house looks just gorgeous – the daydream tulips have changed from a pale lemon-yellow to a rose-apricot in three or four days and they are amazing against the deep purple-blue carpet of the grape hyacinths growing under them (I’ll try to get a picture of that up, but photos don’t communicate the blueness of the flowers). There are about five different kinds of daffodils all blooming at once, with the Festiva Maxima peony leafing out behind them (it will eventually get big enough to cover the bulbs’ yellowing leaves in the summertime) and the little heads of the Casa Blanca lilies just poking up out of the ground next to the Daphne!
In the back we basically abandoned all the plans I’d made. In the shade bed, we moved the fountain & trellis combo closer to the house (forgot we’d need electricity to run it – doh). Also this way, the trellis can cover up the hose. I planted a yuuuge elephant ear (3-7′ tall) in the corner made by the shed where the fountain would have gone, and also bought a Lady Fern and some lobelia as shade ground cover. In the dogwood bed we put some creebing verbena (mmm smells good!) some catmint (light blue flowers, spreads well, good border), some blue phlox (even nicer smell than the verbena, tall), and a delphinium (5′ tall spikes of deep blue flowers). In with the lilac goes a set of oriental poppies (light pink, but what can you do, they didn’t have any red ones in), some more mature False Indigo, another delphinium, and some yarrow, black-eyed susans, and echinacea, which should all spread very quickly and fill out the space nicely. And oh, we also got more bearded irises – yay! The very best part is that Josh was out there with me, helping me plant and water everything! 😀 But the best is yet to come – the patio! We got a load of *free* tumbled stone from a landscaper friend who had a bunch of tail ends he needed to get rid of. This is like a $600 deal at least! So all we need to do is buy the 6x6s to make the frame (our yard slopes a bit, we need to build a reinforcing wall beneath everything) and fill it with gravel and stone dust, and lay it all out – voilá! Josh is working hard at figuring out dimentions and thus-and-such while I labor away at papers. We’re so excited – we get our patio this year instead of next – which means we can have our grape-&-honeysuckle-covered arbor next year instead of three years from now. I can’t wait to study in the fragrant shade! |
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