Pretty Sunday

It's sunny, breezy, and in the 50s--beautiful weather.



We were just out for a little while--the dogs ran and played while I poked around the garden. I planted some dusty miller around the bird feeder--I think I need 6 more plants. I love those bright silver leaves. I deadheaded the German iris, which is still beautiful, and has a very nice scent, and noticed some swellings on the Siberian iris leaves that no doubt presage blooms.


I took the loppers out and whacked around on the big lilac--the north side so I can see when I back out of the driveway, the south side to try to let some western sun in to one of the roses, and the east side to let more sun in to the rose and the clematis. Then I took after the ash tree and whacked off what I could reach, which wasn't very much, unfortunately. I think I may call one of the smaller tree companies and get an estimate on having it trimmed back--perhaps since it's right on the street it will be easy to reach and affordable. The rose on the trellis is getting no sun at all, and the two near the lilac bush aren't getting much, mostly because of the ash tree. I'm not sure I want it completely down, but I definitely want it cut back. I have a couple of cat-sitting gigs starting next week that I can use to pay for it.

On my list of things to do today is grocery shopping, visiting a couple of nurseries in town just to see what's there, and taking out the Round-Up to spray the base of all the tartarian honeysuckles to keep down the suckers and the few noxious weeds that manage to grow at their feet.

This is an interesting columbine--it starts out as bright red and yellow, then fades off to this kind of maroon and cream.


Which is good, since it's planted right next to this magenta spiderwort. You'll have to click on it for the large size, because it's charming in a wildflowery kind of way. I don't like it as much as the blue spiderwort, but it's pretty.

(Later)

Just got back from annual-hunting expedition. The local annuals place, which was run by someone with both experience and imagination, has closed. That leaves me with 2 grocery stores, a farm store, K-Mart, and WalMart, all of which carry geraniums, marigolds, cockscomb, and red-white-and-blue-planted containers. Being something of a garden snob, I'm looking for angelonia, nemesia, dichondra, helichrysum, and calibrachoa. You see my problem. I'll have to try to catch a ride with friends if any of them go plant-hunting out of town, or else order them at twice the price plus postage from White Flower Farm or the like.

The really frustrating thing is that all of these places have had nice selections in the past, but are now apparently ordering plants from the same mass-producers. I don't know whether it's company policy or whether previous people in charge of ordering plants have been more knowledgeable and adventurous, but last year was bad and this year's worse, as far as annual availability goes.