Our garden has been looking a little sad lately. The perennial bulbs that I planted are pretty much all dead due to not really looking at the life-span of the flowers, the crazy weather we're having this spring, and the local "stray-but-not-stray" cat chewing on my tulips and laying on my other plants (I caught her as I was leaving work the other day).
On top of that, there are tons of weeds and other invasive plants growing in my little planter. I have TONS of lily of the valley growing. I really love lily of the valley. Don't get me wrong, but if I'm going to keep it in the planter it needs to somehow be "wrangled." The little voice in the back of my head is just laughing hysterically about that thought - pointing and laughing and saying "yeah... good luck with that one."
So, here's my plan.
I'm going to dig up all the bulbs I planted last fall and replant them somewhere else in the front yard where I won't care so much if they die out quickly.
THEN I'm going to ask my very dear, sweet, loving husband to take a little trip with me to the garden store (probably not until next weekend though) and purchase some white azalea bushes and plant those suckers. I also found some yellow peony that will look really pretty and will couple nicely with the daffodils that are pretty established. I have some white and pink hyacinth that will look nice along the border (along with the unruly lily of the valley) and I found this flower too:
Photo from Summerstone Nursery's website, www.summerstonenursery.com
I mean who doesn't love Betty White? And I really love the color of this rose. It's a lovely peachy-pink color and will look lovely against the white azalea and the other plants I am planning for that space. I love antique roses too - there's just something so romantic about them.
I have a bunch of blue/purple hyacinth, wood squill and other assorted tulips that will need to find a new home somewhere else in my garden - I'm not terribly sure where they're going to go to be honest. Possibly either in the tree rings or near the entryway until we can get the backyard perennial garden established (and then we'll move the hyacinth and wood squill back there - the tulips will stay in the front yard.
Ideally it will look like this:
If you can't read the type (my bad) the large white circles are the azalea, large yellow circles are the peony and the large pink circles are the Betty White rose. The little green circles are going to be either a varigated hosta or evergreen. (I haven't decided on what that will be yet). The little yellow circles are daffodils, the little white circles in the corners are white casablanca lily (which I already have) and the pink and white circles in the front are hyacinth (which I already have).
The circles that are there are representative of the plants mature size - so it will be kind of puny for a few years. Azalea can get up to 4 feet in diameter, but you can always cut them back if you need to - as well as peony and rose bushes. The other perennials will multiply for sure, and will fill out the bed really nicely.
All told, I'll have to buy 13 plants. I can move everything else around to the front. Yeah, they're already "done" for the season so to speak, but I can move them there so they can establish themselves for next year's growing season. At the very least, I'll have the white azalea bloom this year along with whatever greenery we'll have and it will look nice. Is it so wrong to want a nice, lush garden?
I didn't add the lily of the valley in there, but it will fill in the "bare" spots between plants. I have so much of it that I'm not really even sure I'll keep all of it - so we'll have to see.
The other "garden" in front of our large window is doing okay. My rose of Sharon isn't doing so hot. I mean it's budding and all, but that's about it. Understandably, it doesn't flower until late summer/early fall and we planted them in November last year, so it might be a while before that stars to happen. Plus, I planted some delphinium seeds, which take an entire year before they grow.
Patience... patience patience... it's not like I don't have other projects to deal with in the meantime.
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