Garden Map - Bird Sanctuary, Fence side of path...

All areas of my garden have gone through big changes this year. Normally, I update my old maps of each area, marking what winter-killed and what was moved in or out. This year I had to draw new maps because marking the old would have made them unreadable and I like to keep the old maps legible so if anything comes up down the road that I don't expect, I can usually figure out what it is by checking what has been planted in that spot over the years. A good example of that is my new poppy in the Sun Garden. It is either 'Chocolate Ruffle' or 'Miss Piggy' because those were the only poppy planted there. However, both were planted there in 2009 and this is the first I am seeing of either. Just waiting for it to bloom now. Today I finshed moving and planting everything I had that was to go in the Bird Sanctuary on the fence side of the path. Once that was done, I turned the sprinkler on it and made a new map (above). This is a shade garden and includes my hosta garden. Although I have hosta strewn throughout the garden, this spot contains the largest part of my collection. I love hosta. Also here are wood violets, spirea 'Snowmound', solomon's seal, columbine in three varieties, phlox, lily-of-the-valley and lamium 'Herman's Pride' that I brought back from Linda's last year. The columbine patch was added today and the ostrich fern patch was moved from Judy's backyard this year as well. I have moved a few hosta around in this area this year and added hosta 'Carol' but the rest of the plants are all returning from last year. I will have to do an overlay for tulips and daffodils if I put any here but there are only one or two spots that get enough sun for them. I may not plant any here. I dug hosta 'Carol', 'Wolverine', bonus dark, 'Dream Weaver', 'Christmas Candy' and purple/yellow columbine to send to Linda today as well. It was a great day for gardening even if it was a little hot at +32!

Voodoo Lily

This bloom has been 4 years and 2 bulbs in the making.  Only my husband would want to grow a flower that smells like carcass!  Apparently it will smell as it is pollinated by flies - but I haven't caught a bad odour yet.  This is one of a few 'first times' in our garden this year.  aka Dracunculus vulgaris

Prairie Coneflower

My first discovery about country gardening was the seemingly unlimited variety of native plants, which most people call weeds here. Weeds or not, many of them were captivating to me. First came the wild rose with its' variety of pink shades in small flowers that open wide for the sun and its' remarkable adaptability to bloom under any circumstances. I have seen wild rose blooms high in the treetops, opening from a single winding stalk along the trunk and I have seen them bloom less than an inch off the ground, forced by a mower to open low yet looking happily upward. Just as delightful were the dark purple blooms of vetch. Although I work hard to keep it out of the yard because it gets big, tall and abundant, I let it go crazy in the fields because there is nothing quite as fine as the sweet smell of vetch coming in on a cool summer breeze. I also discovered a little white star flower that first year that I have yet to identify, honeysuckle in pink, anemone in white and the fall joy of wild cucumber vine when its' seedpods pop-pop-pop, providing listening pleasure around the fire. It was impossible for me to pick a favourite until late that first summer when the prairie coneflowers opened up. All along the roadside, in the ditches and fields, miniature sunny yellow coneflowers with long, dark, detailed cones appeared suddenly and everywhere. Sunny, smiley and optimistic is how they make me feel. I have tried to domesticate many of these wild plants. I move wild rose that comes up in the road to the lawn edge and attempt to get it to climb the bush. Wild rose tolerates everything well but being moved. You can mow it down and it will come up over and over but if you dig it, it sulks. I move the pretty little star flowers from deep inside the bush to the edge where their blooms poke out from behind and between other plants as little white twinkles. I move vetch from the yard to the field edge. Only prairie coneflower has been awarded a spot inside the garden proper though. Last year, I got to the field before the thresher and moved four plants into my garden. They are opening now and all I can think is that the patch needs to be about twice the size it is now. If I am going to beat the thresher this year to remedy that, I better get out to the field tomorrow because the fields are ready to hay now. Since I am never good with garden deadlines, I may just have to cross my fingers that these four produce a good amount of seed!

The Little Things

This plastic pot belongs in a little green metal chair. It is the seat of that chair, obviously never meant to sit in. I really dislike plastic pots and only planted it because I loved the little chair. Last year I used the chair as a peony ring for a baby peony that was needing help standing and the pot sat in the shop all year. This year, every pot I am taking has been planted with plants I am taking. This little plastic bowl seat got filled with sedum, creeping jenny, hens & chicks and dwarf purple iris - yes, I have a spreadsheet! Since it is an awkward shape to sit outside the chair and the chair is still over the peony, I tucked it in the boardwalk garden where a winter killed veronica left a space. Turns out that it is my favorite little planter this year. It is full of texture and so many shades of green that it always catches my eye as I walk by. Guess I like plastic after all.

Roses!

As much as I hate to see the iris end, it means the roses have started! The 'Therese Bugnet' is the earliest of my roses and started with the iris but 'William Baffin' (above) had its' first open bloom yesterday. Today it is full. 'John Cabot' and Marilyn's rose opened along with it. All the others are in full bud and I expect to see more varieties open over the next few days. There are several reasons I love roses. The scent, the colours, the abundant blooms and the fact that they will flower now right through until fall. What more could you ask of a flowering shrub?

Good Hair Day

I was born with bone straight, very fine hair. The kind of hair that it is hard to find a hair dresser that knows what to do with it. The lifetime result of that is that my hair is always straight and either shoulder length or longer because for the last ten years I have had the same hair routine. Every summer when the weather gets really hot, I pull it all into a ponytail and then cut that off. It grows the rest of the year until I get too hot in the garden again and repeat the procedure. I think my skills as a garden hair dresser are far more impressive. This year, our pothead Gnome has three types of sedum for hair. I like this planting better than any other she has had since she arrived. Miles is more fond of her when I plant decorative grasses but I love the way the sedum sits along her forehead and fills outward and upward giving the impression that she has spent some time making herself look her best. Perhaps heading to a Saturday night barn dance. I think she is going to look even better when the flowers open.