Earth Day 2009

The above garden area used to be shaded by an elm tree that was lost in the ice storm. As part of my maniacal march to transform my backyard into a park-like atmosphere, this bed became one of my major projects. However, to get the flower bed to the above raw state for planting required a lot of ground work, and yes, the pun is intended. Bill had to remove some railroad ties and I laid a new path, one which I hope will allow me to reach all areas throughout the growing season. Believe it or not, I weeded six weeks ago but in the intervening time new weeds have taken root.

Here in Fayetteville, spring flower planting begins in earnest on April 15th after the likelihood of frost drops. So on Monday I visited the garden shop. Now when it comes to sunny flower gardens, I really haven't a clue. I don't even know if this area will have become a sunny spot once the foliage opens on the trees that remain after the ice storm's damage. Nevertheless, I'm treating this area as a sunny one until proven otherwise.

I don't really know that much about gardening but I know a little about design. Repetition, texture, color palette, points of view--stuff like that matters. First I decided on my color palette. Since shade gardens rely on greens and I've looked at shade for over 20 years, I wanted a bold and colorful garden full of warm colors. Pink, yellow, red, purple, and white for the basis of my garden. I would have liked some orange but didn't find just the right plant for the occasion.

Westwood Gardens is built on a hillside so navigating with my gardening cart is always interesting. In addition to a hill, there are obstacles like water hoses, display tables, and an odd flooring material that make it difficult to get around. So I decided to park my little cart by the camelias so that I could suck in the intoxicating aroma with each trip back to the cart.

This dahlia was the first to catch my fancy. It's a very happy flower, and I love the shade of pink.



Next, I came across this African daisy. I actually was in search of yellow snapdragons because their color is such a pretty shade of lemon yellow. But these daisies were well-established plants, and I thought their purple centers more than made up for the somewhat desaturated yellow in their petals. Besides, Chaucer's favorite flower is the daisy ("day's-eye') so I knew Bill, the Chaucerian, would approve of this choice on principal.



This Gerber daisy was also cheery. How could I not buy three of them!



I wanted something tall and white as a counterpoint to all of the color. This fragile little flower is a Cosmos but after months in Roma I keep looking for Damian, too! In addition to its pure white petals, it has feathery leaves for a pleasant change in texture.



Something about these verbena remind me of a brooch that my Grandmother Reed used to wear. I think that's why I selected these flowers.



Here are some red verbena.



I like snapdragons because they come in different colors, they make good cuttings, and most of all because I can actually grow them. Apparently, others in Fayetteville feel the same because there were barely any left. Finally, after four stops I found some scraggly ones at Lowe's. They looked so pitiful that the saleslady sold them to me for half price.

So after two days of toil my garden looks like this. I still have rocks to remove and a tad more mulch to lay. As for those rocks, Bill's been depositing the "percolated" rocks that he finds when he mows the lawn for years along this rock wall. In addition to making it more difficult to weed, the smaller rocks provide a fabulous habitat for ants. Millions of them. I don't take any perverse pleasure in killing them dead in their tracks with anti-ant spray, but I'm left with no other choice, especially when they scurry up my gloves and onto my sleeves. That's not a good Earth Day admission but it's true. So I've decided to throw away unwanted rocks. That's probably another anti-Earth Day confession. The fact is that I really don't know what else to do with them. They're too little for landscaping purposes and too disperse for a paid hauler. I do assuage my guilt by telling myself that at least they're not Pampers! The white bags in the picture below contain unwanted rocks. Soon they will be a thing of the past.



On a greener note, I bought some fish today. The Petco woman would only sell me five. Was she afraid that I'd abuse them? The deal is that you buy them in a plastic bag, transport them home, and then let them float on the water for about 20 minutes while the fish acclimate to their new surroundings.



Here are three of them free, free at last. They love to zip around in their new pond. In the foreground is our water lily. It will eventually spread out. Both the fish and the lily will help to prevent algae bloom.