Long overdue

Like a library book, I'm long overdue. At blogging, that is.

No excuses here, I've just been busy resembling a vegetable. The garden - she doesn't need me so much as she did when I started her. It's mostly perennials, and we've laid down some serious mulch to keep the weeds under control.

There's still some fussing and fiddling, some weeding, some planting, much learning.... but by and large, it's not so consuming this year. On weekends, I sometimes have trouble getting started, for all the lack of pressing garden needs.

I should make a list of all of the projects I have planned. Maybe that would make me feel needed again.

I have a hard time just enjoying things, apparently. Even the picture taking is getting kind of same-old...

Ah well, here's the latest crop of pics.



Maybe I just need to learn to appreciate subtlety. This lupin, for example, was new last year and produced just one small stalk. This year, it and it's neighbouring white lupin, are flowering in abundance. I liked them so much, I went out and bought two new ones - a red and a yellow. Had to put the new ones on the other side of the yard because I'm running out of space where these are.

Actually, that's quickly becoming a problem. Space. I'm starting to run out of space to put new things in.



These painted daisies were new last year as well and the plant almost didn't make it. In fact, I had so completely convinced myself that it died, that I couldn't remember what this was when it started flowering.

It's a rather stunning colour, isn't it?



The foxglove continues to impress me. I bought 3 new ones in different colours this spring. Last year's is flowering but the new ones aren't yet. It's a biennial.



This calendula is also new this year. It has a slightly different colouring then last year's calendula. Calendula is supposed to be an annual, but it looks like it self seeds quite hardily - at least the spot where I planted it last year is quite full of foliage that looks like it belongs to the calendula but no flowers there. Only on the new ones. Quite strange. I'm letting the space where it was planted last year be undisturbed so I can see what happens.



The tigerlillies are in trouble this year. They're out on the front of the fence that faces the sidewalk. It's a very small town, but apparently there are still troublemakers or the just plain thoughtless. Someone has been pulling them out and throwing them on the ground nearby.

Neil thinks it's a kid riding by on his bike, grabbing at it, and discarding.

I don't care who or what the excuse is - it's just plain rude. I want to put up a big sign in the post office and shame the offender into an apology. *sigh* I wish the world worked that way.

A few years ago, we found the shasta daises out on the fenceline were being cut. We decided it was a kid taking flowers to his mom. Also annoying, and they could readily have obtained permission if they had bothered to ask.... but cute. Not random destruction like the tiger lillies are suffering.



This is called a japanese wonderflower. We bought the bulbs from the big show - Canada Blooms - last year. We had six of them in flower last summer, and now we're apparently down to 2 plants. I just looked them up on the web, and apparently 'Japanese Wonderflower' is a madeup name to sell Mirabilis jalapa (aka 'Wonder of Peru' and 4 O'Clocks) at garden shows. Fascinating.

And it's not particularily frost hardy in zone 5. Which explains why we lost 4 of the 6. It's one of those tubers I'll have to dig up every year if I want it.

I hate that. It's contrary to my philosophy of gardening, in that if it can't survive in my zone, I don't want it. I tend to only buy annuals for window boxes, vegetables, and to fill in empty space where I've overcrowded it with spring bulbs that are gone too early (and I'm working on that problem).



St.John's Wort. I have two of them. One from an ordinary commercial nursery, and one from the famed Richter's Herbs. Strangely, it's the one from the ordinary commercial nursery that is giving these wonderful flowers. The one from Richter's is straggly, and not flowering at all. I'm assuming that the Richter's plant is a slightly different variety, and better for medicinal use, so I'm not ready to axe it just yet.

Even if I'm also not ready to use herbs medicinally yet myself. It's on the list of things to do with my life. In the meantime, I just plant them.

But it is puzzling.

Well, that's it. I guess I had more to say then I thought.

Cheerio,

Karen