doing a little digging...

I was really hesitant to mail order plants. Having never done it before, it took me weeks to get up the nerve to make the commitment, after deciding and re-deciding at least a dozen times about what to get, how many, which would work best, and how much to spend, I finally hit the send button. You know what a sucker we can all be for a discount/bargain, so when the site offered me a $25 discount, which more than covered the cost of shipping, I was compelled to get off the fence and order. The plants came in the mail one day last week, and I got them in the ground that same day.

One variety was something that is pretty common (gallardia), and could probably have been picked up in the wally world garden center, but the other is something I never saw or heard of (cornflower that blooms a bright, magenta shade of pink, with silvery leaves) before perusing the nursery website. Both are supposed to be colorful all season, and very hardy, heat resistant and ignored by deer unless they get really desperate. I am trying stick with perennials

I've also been very pleasantly surprised by seeing daylillies bloom that have never performed before. Introduced to the ones that are supposed to re bloom all summer long, (thank you, e.e.) I bought a couple of pots several years ago. The deer obviously thought the buffet was open, as they barely had leaves, much less having buds mature to the point of opening. Looking good!

I expect to be digging, re-digging, shifting things to different locations, as my ultimate plan is to do some landscaping out in front of the house when the inside gets finished. Part of my thinking is that the things I have been buying will look good around the entry way when I have a load of topsoil brought in to provide a good bed since everything here is pretty much rock-hard, impervious, tenacious red clay. That will provide a good base, with amendments, to put out some of the perennials for long-lasting color across the plain grey siding. And I can re-locate some of the things I have been bringing home, and make the house look inviting, welcoming, 'homey' and loved before you even open the front door!


Belatedly planted tomatoes in the little back-yard garden plot are really growing, obviously happy to be out of confiment of pots, and the beans out on the home-made trellis are climbing like crazy: fe-fi-fo-fum!