I bought some (not too many many) more plants because High Country Gardens offered me 10% off. They arrived yesterday, and today I unpacked them, and there was another 10% coupon. I'm wise to them now though.
Three of the five Achillea ageratifolia in the south half aren't doing so well, so I added Lavandula x intermedia Alba to that garden. That might not be such a hot idea: if the yarrow is failing to thrive, it's probably the Nepeta catmint's fault, taking over the planet as it's doing. Baby plants might not make it against plants in their fourth growing season. But Lavender Smells Good is my motto, and the garden needs some white to set off the blue catmint and purple penstemon, so I shoved those in. To give them some space, I halved a catmint.
Part of the occasionally xeric landscaping at Dot Org is a shrub that ÜberBoss identified as a butterfly bush. It wasn't--butterflies might like it, but it's not the same thing as Buddleia alternifolia. Last spring I saw a tub of it at Home Depot and snatched it up, obtaining both plant and name. And aha, High Country Gardens does sell Caryopteris x clandonensis, but the catalog photograph only shows the color of the blossom--blue violet, which I had noticed--not a single blossom's shape, and I was attracted to its scent as well as its color. Now three more have joined last year's shrub as newlings.
I think the Artemisia versicolor has survived its transplanting, and once again I cleared the bit against the south porch, including a two-year-old clipping of catmint that, like its brethren, threatens to take over the planet. I killed that entirely, feeling much guiltier about the worm I accidentally half-severed with the trowel than about the plant (catmint is the garden's sourdough proof, I am convinced), and placed Ribes odoratum, clove-scented currant, which, if it lives, will be a good size against the porch wall.
To the north garden I added three more Salvia farinacea. The impetus for the whole order was that one of the three-year-olds did not appreciate my overenthusiastic shearing this spring (that was the impetus; the justification was the 10% off).
Two of the brand new Salvia dorrii didn't make it, but the nursery will replace anything that dies before 90 days. All three Centranthus ruber are about to bloom, as is the Scabiosus; the Veronica oltensis is a riot of blue and the Vinca major is busting out all over. Both the Cerastium tomentosum and Erodium chrysanthum are beginning to bloom. The former abuts Veronica oltensis and both are spreading; I prefer the latter but suspect snow-in-summer is the more aggressive.
Gregor has new leaves, though it doesn't look as strong and its leaves are not as big as those of the neighbor's maple sapling. The rowan looks like it will set berries this year, which will make the winter's starlings and flickers happy.
In back, the Mexican sunflowers and bachelor's buttons are beginning to sprout around the olive stump, as are the Romaine lettuce, nigh-spinach in the vegetable garden, and peas nearby along the south fence. No carrots in the vegetable garden yet, and no squash under the cherry tree.
So far in the south fence are peas near the vegetable garden, and then the stretch where I'll expend water on non-edibles because they're in the shade of the south fence and benefit from that neighbor's enthusiastic watering. There are two spreading and three new "Lucerne" blue-eyed, three new Pulmonaria longiflora, three two?-year-old Aquilegia formosa, and the most recent order's big splurge of six Symphytum grandiflorum.
This morning I woke before 7 and read and fell back asleep until the phone rang. My father asked if he'd woken me, because it was 9. Nine my time, really? But I was out until midnight so maybe that's not so bad. We talked for an hour after that, so I didn't get outside until 10:30 or so. It was beautiful, sunny and 60 with cumulus clouds, but I had planted exactly one plant, the currant, when a stormfront rolled over. I put Blake's cage through the dishwasher waiting for the thunder and slight rain to pass, and tried to called Haitch's shower but I didn't have the right in-law's number and another in-law quite sensibly had her phone turned off, and did some laundry. The rest of the plants went much faster after the first, which had required the clearing of a grassy patch. At least it was only grass, not bindweed, and I hope the one tulip there survives, and I tried to spare the grape hyacinth. The Caryopteris x clandonensis required removing some sod as well, but I could do that bluntly with a hoe instead of restrictedly in the angle of the porch while trying to be nice to the bulbs. I should have smothered the grass to weaken it previously, but for now I hoed out some and lay all the detritus from the porch garden atop the rest for clearing later this month.
One more rain suggested a short break before I finished around 4. Blake and I had a shower, with him not sure at the start but soon enthusiastic, and pleasant blow-drying afterward (he loves to be blow-dried). Since then we've been preening and reading, and one of us has had his head pet a lot and the other has been sneaking snorts of freshly-washed cockatiel dust. Pretty much a perfect day.
