sneaky Ts and garden thoughts

I'm back in the bedroom with the laptop--usually I knit and listen to music on the computer back here before bed but at the moment don't feel like doing either. At any rate, I brought the camera with me, and both Ts have tiptoed out into the other room. Talk about camera shy!

No, here's Taenzer, but lying with her back to me. I almost got a photo of her and Annie touching noses, but Annie stopped about 3 inches away and Taenzer didn't reach, and instead flicked an ear back at me so she looked all miserable and geeky, so that was that. Annie doesn't like having her picture taken; she never has--the flash hurts her eyes, I think.

Wind howling. I've got all but the north bedroom window closed, and will probably close it before bed. Rain supposedly on its way but so far not much--an eighth of an inch, maybe. Believe it or not after all the rain we've had, we could actually use about an inch now, and some mild weather. The garden centers are all opening this weekend--pity I don't have any money, but then I don't really know what I want. Something floral for the raised bed, particularly since the rosebush is dead and none of the iris look like blooming.

Mental notes:

• Fertilize everything.
• Watch for slugs (maybe they all froze?)
• Get bagged manure for lilies of the valley and Asiatic lilies.
• Look for Casa Blanca lilies.
• Get more of those big 24" clay squares (goal: eventually "pave" the scraggly grassy area north of the house). (but make sure to somehow grade away from foundation)
• Look for Golden Showers climbing rose.
• Try to remember who had jasmine last year and get for backdoor trellis.
• Try not to get overwhelmed by annuals and just buy something for containers. Purple, silver, pink, rose, maybe lime green. Check White Flower Farm for examples.
• Look for Persian shield for ex-rose plot, or substitute heliotrope.
• Look for dwarf goatsbeard (or similar--low, fine foliage, green) for around brunnera.
• Cut back vinca and stick cuttings along the north and west sides of the house; also on the little bank by the ex-rose plot.
• Look for dirt fill for the two new raised beds between house and garage.
• Get boards and hardware to make the back and sides of the 2nd bed. 1 x 12s--either 6 or 8 feet.
• Repot little yew trees into bigger pots.
• Paint garage even if it is falling down-- lilies will show up better against a darker background.
• Look for white foxgloves.
• Try to find something to plant under the blue spruce that might actually grow there. (one patch of snow-in-summer died, one didn't; pachysandra all died; daylilies and Russian sage scraggly but holding on; blue fescue decorative grass looking decidedly unwell)
• What to plant along east side of house? (early morning sun, then shade--a little too much sun to be shady, not enough sun to really encourage anything to bloom--lilies kaput)--if shrub then not too large and must have good foliage. Astilbe? Goatsbeard? (too coarse?) Clethera? Sweetspire? Buckthorn "Fine Line" with boxwood? Sweet box (sarcococca)? Stephanandra? Astilbe thunbergii Straussenfeder, with pink weeping-form "flowers," and Astilbe arendii Deutschland, with spire-shaped white flowers, might make a nice contrast and look good against brick--with a Buckthorn "Fine Line" at either end for height and definition. Something in front--dwarf sweetbox? In front of that, something with a bit of droop and nod, spilling forward, 6 inches tall or less. Pink foxglove (digitalis mertonensis) would look good against the brick foundation. Maybe a hosta or two--something like Krossa Regal. Is there a blue form? Then a semi-sun garden along the street, and a herringbone paver path between the two, and voila, one less area to mow.

Thunder. Here it comes.