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| Snow-in-summer, May 2015 It was neither snowing, nor summer. But aren't they pretty! |
Sunday the weather was wickedly cold and windy. So we went to the garden store. I bought seeds and potting soil, in what will probably prove to be a futile attempt to bring beauty into the world.
Yesterday the weather was nice enough that I did this.
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| Forget-me-nots, Thyme, and Black-eyed Susan vine |
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| The Black-eyed Susan vine seeds are fairly large. |
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| By contrast, the thyme seeds are tiny. |
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| The fatal flaw in this whole project may be that I did not throw out the old dirt but just mixed it with the new dirt. |
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| Then out to the yard. I set to digging two holes in our less-than-ideal soil. |
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| Into those holes I put two snow-in-summer plants. The existing snow-in-summer is at the tip of the trowel in this photo. It is on its last legs, so perhaps it was foolish to plant new ones in the same spot. |
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| And then I sprayed the balloon flower sprouts with Liquid Fence to keep the #$&*# deer and rabbits away. |
I want to eventually plant more perennials, and my more-experienced-at-gardening friends have suggested:
butterfly weed
bee balm
anise hyssop
yarrow
allium = ornamental onion
Here are my reasons – first, because all of them claim to be deer- and rabbit-resistant, grow in poor soil, and are heat tolerant. I plan to place them next to the wall of the house that gets the sun all afternoon. The downside is the interwebs say they are prone to powdery mildew, a fungal disease. I don’t want to have to use chemicals.
Here are more pros:
Butterfly weed: I want to be nice to the butterflies. As Ron Weasley said, “Why couldn't it have been 'follow the butterflies'?”
Bee Balm: It is fun to say. And I want to be nice to the bees. As long as they keep their distance and don’t build homes in the walls of the house.
Anise hyssop: Hyssop is biblical. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7) Never mind that Penn State Extension says that anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is not bona fide hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis).
Yarrow: I would plant this for the interesting foliage, although the flowers online look charming too.
Allium: Ornamental Onion is fun to say. The flowers look like pompoms.
And I am also thinking of Black-eyed Susans because I have always loved them.
And Bleeding Hearts, because we have had two that came up every spring since we moved to this house, but I think the weeds have finally choked them out. And I’m hoping they will grow in mostly shade. I would have bought some on Sunday but the garden store had none in stock.
Do you have a garden? What are you planting this season? Do you have any experience with these perennials?
3 comments:
Phlox, for the first time
We have many of the herbs-- chives, parsley, mint, and rosemary-- we had last year. They're in pots and we brought them inside during cold snaps. We need to get some basil and cilantro and maybe dill.
We've been slow to get the vegetables and flowers started this year, partly because it was a cold winter/early spring and then we were traveling. All I've planted is potatoes and dwarf cosmos. I was thinking of starting seeds yesterday (because what better day than Earth Day) but I couldn't find any seed starter soil in the basement.
And to answer the question, I think we did have bee balm at one point. And we have Black-Eyed Susans that have been coming back since the kids were small. They migrated from where we planted them to all over the yard, so we just mow around them. They aren't quite as profuse as they were at their peak several years ago, but very pretty and no effort.
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