Take Three

It's done: done for this year, at least. In the latest and final round, I have planted whatever it is I'm going to plant this year and have mulched.

It doesn't look like much, but, hopefully, it will emerge as something worthwhile over time. As I posted previously, there are lots of petunias in there that should fill out in another month or two. Today I added perennials that will look good in the years to come ... knock on wood.



I went to the local grocery store (a YIG for those who understand the short form) which actually has a pretty fair perennial section, better than Wal-Mart or Home Depot or Canadian Tire which is the local competition. I chose plants of the lavender, pink, blue and white shades and stayed away from yellows, oranges and reds. It's not that I have anything against the latter, but we're trying to go with a bit of a colour scheme. So, I picked what I could from their stock, planted it, and now hope for the best. It wasn't necessarily the assemblage that I might have gathered had I had all of the choice in the world, but I did my best under the circumstances. For example: most, except the phlox at the front are summer flowers; I had hoped to include asters for later colour but couldn't find any, and I didn't think sedum, which they did have, would fit very well in this particular garden.

I've had a perennial garden before and know that I will probably change my mind a lot once I see how the garden begins to take shape. Sometimes, reality turns out to be different than what your mind's eye envisages in the designing stage, and one has to be adaptable. For example, the campanula is in front of the echinacea right now, but it may turn out to be taller, so those two could be switched at some point, or I could move one or the other out of this bed completely.

Here's a labelled photograph for those who know plants and/or are interested. Where there is both a Latin name and a common name, the Latin comes first. Clicking will give you a somewhat larger version.



It's not much, but it's a start and should be a big improvement on the disaster that has been our lawn and garden since we moved here ... and for many years before that, I venture to guess. Hopefully this bed will just be the start of a larger plan, but I have to be careful because I know from past experience that gardens can become more of a burden than a pleasure if you get carried away with grand plans.