Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Today is the third of three glorious days of gardening. On Saturday, we dug the spent tulips out of the annual bed by the back door and put in impatiens. (We ran out of impatiens and need to buy more today.) We also planted heliotrope in the bed in front of the livingroom window, replaced several sickly-looking wave petunias in the bed by the dogwood, and planted a few leftover marigolds, deadnettle, and another groundcover in an open spot along the back of the house (I need to check the name on that last one). Kay trimmed the big taxus beyond the annual bed, opening up the path between that bed and the taxus again, and we used the truck to haul those trimmings plus some large fallen pine branches out to the mulch pile.

Yesterday, I continued my project of reclaiming the neglected bed between the forsythia and the big taxus. I cut down and raked out the violets, lily-of-the-valley, and assorted weeds, and then spread water-logged newspaper over the bed and covered the newspaper with mulch. (A little brown toad came along with the mulch.) I still have half the bed to be tamed. I also planted a false sunflower in the front, in the corner by the holly; sawed off the less comely side of our split redbud; and weeded and mulched half of the front rose bed.

In a few moments, before it gets any warmer, we're going to put marigolds, petunias, and ageratum in the bed around the mailbox, and after that it's another trip to the nursery.