I continue to make my bed: working out there amongst the birds and the bees, butterflies when I have time to squeeze in some of the most excellent Hole-Digging Therapy around all the other busy-ness. It's coming along... the spring blooming daisies I moved last week from elsewhere (having migrated from the edge of the woods out into the grass, where they will get mowed over on a regular basis) are budding out. In spite of agressive behavior on my part when they were roughly shoveled out of their comfort, snatched up and hauled across the lawn and forced into a new environment, they look ready to pop open, lifting their smiling faces sun-ward.
Got a big hole dug late yesterday and stirred in some enriched, lush, nutritious black potting soil to plant some lily corns that came from Quitman. I dug them last week, crammed in a trash bag and brought with the idea of figuring out place to put them in the new bed. It may take a couple of years for the agapanthus to bloom, but looking forward to results. There are a number of other things that are growing in the little spaces around here between grass and trees that have been requsted/invited to relocate from south GA over the years. Some of which I have dug and shared, sent farther north to be transplanted in Decatur and Chatty. So this 'relocation' project has gotten bigger and more involved than originally planned.
The next thing to re-arrange around here: will be some perennial salvia/sage that has been successfully growing and blooming for several years over on the north side of the yard... thinking about how bright and cheery, colorful the red blooms will be in contrast to the neutral gray siding on the front of the house.Then some taller butterfly bush that will bloom in graceful dark purple arcs when it recovers from the shock of relocation.Do you see a pattern here? Do you think the hummers and b'flies will be swarming at My house? Oh, yesssss. They will be here, falling in love, and getting married, starting families, settling down, making homes and enjoying puttering around in their slippers and robes in their retirement years....
I have a couple of concrete planters that might go out there in the bed, with something that will drape over the sides - maybe some of that stuff from the Callaway Gardens plant sale. I bought this flat, dark green, perennial when the greenhouse workers described it as a good ground cover, that would spread out and become 'mat-like', covering an area of at least two feet square, with low blooms. Commonly called 'self-heal', I envisioned it to look like ajuga when it flowers. Then after planting, when I 'Googled' it - found it related to Mint: they recommend it be planted in a bottomless pot for control (to keep it from turning into kudzu or English ivy?) So that little baby is potentially going into a container/pot to keep it under control. Can't have things out there acting up and misbehaving just because it's all be put in good, nutritious, enriched, healthy dirt.
All the strategy is based on size, color, mature height, behavior (agressiveness in spreading as a ground cover). Funny how in one place something can be considered an 'excellent ground cover' and in another be fought with a vengance as an invasive undesirable: like all this English ivy that gets a periodic dose of industrial strength weed-killer If you want some ajuga (spreading out into the grass where it gets trampled and mowed - which might explain why it keeps heading north at such a rapid pace, in an effort to bust out), place your order now!
So.... looking down the road at how it will appear when the transplants are settled and actually start to grow. With trying to get out there and water every day (when it does not rain) and sometimes being able to do it early and late, everything that has been re-arranged looks good thus far - but it is all at risk in the blistering early afternoon sun, especially planted adjacent to the concrete apron of the driveway. It's taking shape: I was surprised to discover three different types of daisies out there, that have been re-arranged to intermittently edge the length of the bed. They will bloom at three different seasons... is it obvious there is a daisy fan living here?
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