My front border has suffered from neglect on account of the dust. My house is too close to the road. So, I made a decision to stop trying to have annuals there. This has only taken me years to figure out. It suddenly dawned on me that having a pretty show of flowers for the passers-by was ridiculous. For one thing, everyone zooms past so fast that all they see is a blur, or my backside as I work the soil.
I shall now confine my efforts for my eyes only. The weedy hill out back will be my new area of interest/challenge.
At the moment, however, there are bunches of wildflowers there that the bees are working. Shrub-like White Heath Asters have taken over spots not already choked by English Plantain and foxtails. Usually, I avoid yanking out flowers in bloom. They don't like it and I feel bad. However, the surrounding fields are crammed with them. I believe the cows don't eat them, preferring to just smell their lovely fragrance and admire the tiny daisy-like flowers.
Now that cooler weather has finally arrived, I can fling myself headlong into transforming the hill into a blooming showplace. That's how we gardeners always start out, with plans that are a tad beyond grandiose.
As I've mentioned, the soil is lovely on that hillside. That's why it's choked with weeds. No need to dwell on that.
To this end, I have ordered a bulb planting auger for my drill. Here are quantities of daffodils that I dug up recently because they needed to be divided. There are some daylilies that I want to transplant in the manner of White Flower Farm's expensive Daffodils and Daylilies collection.
My plan is to also transplant as many of the robust plants as possible. Here are the sage I mentioned earlier. They have lovely blue flowers in springtime and shade out weeds that try and grow under them. Bees and hummingbirds love them. Parts have sometimes died out in a really cold winter, minus twenty degrees, but they have always rebounded.
Best for me to begin with Square Inch Gardening. Today, I started at the end closest to the back of the house and began the slow crawl forward.
Getting the roots out required several things, like the shovel, claw and kneelie. Another was the lawn chair and jar of iced tea with basswood honey.
The beauty of this bed is it gets morning and late afternoon shade. Heading in a northerly direction, I came upon the Lost Iris Planting. The weeds have infiltrated it and the irises will all have to be dug up. That four-foot wedge of dirt was about two hours' worth of digging and sorting. Soon, I'll be able to work the soil with the Mantis and proceed with the Grand Plan, hopefully before the fall rains start.
