#1: Lamium is deer-resistant, but not bunny-resistant. The six plants I put in the wayback are gone as if I'd never planted them. At $2/plant, it's neither the most expensive nor the least expensive plant mistake I've ever made. We'll see how the toad lilies do back there--the astilbe have thus far survived. If worst comes to worst, I'll just fill the whole area with lily-of-the-valley.
#2: If necessary, have "cheap dirt is worthless" tattooed on yourself somewhere. The $1.07/40 lbs stuff I bought at Home Depot is awful. Sometime this week I'll have to swing by Ace and buy a carful of good topsoil. I basically wasted $11 at Home Depot. The front bed progresses, but needs more dirt, and I won't be starting another bed in the back until I have about twice the amount of topsoil I need ON HAND, BEFOREHAND. I'll put the new hydrangea in where the blue flowers from Spring Hill failed to come up.
#3: I've been gardening like mad since April, and I still want more money for more dirt, plants, mulch (and maybe some labor for the stuff that's killing my back). If pressed, I would have to say that it's a fairly benign addiction, since it does at least improve the landscape as well as my own state of mind.
#4: Gardens will always surprise you. In addition to the things that didn't come up, some of the things which have sprouted have done so in odd colors. I bought pink-and-white gladiolus bulbs, and they're blooming peach. Either the package was wrong, or last year's plants have morphed (which happens sometimes with glads, I don't know why). At any rate, the peach is a pretty color, and if it will spoil the overall effect, I'll just cut all the blooms and take 'em in to the office. It sure does have me scratching my head, though.
I'll try to remember to post some pictures in a month or so, when things are blooming. Right now, there's a lot more mulch and dirt than flowers, and I still have stuff to weed and mulch (the not-fun part of gardening).
3 comments:
i can grow weeds really well
JP is Italian, so we focus mostly on growing produce...primarily tomatoes. That is not a bad thing, plus we do it well. Our flowers never work out very well and we have managed to kill a jade plant. We need to practice our gardening skills a little more.
ahh tomatoes - italian birth here too - i never got the urge to kill tomatoes (other than by eating them) but can remember many a late summer morning waking up and getting the paper by the back door only to find a bag of tomatoes from one of my mother's brothers - those were good days....sliced tomatoes with mayo
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