Incognito

I finally had time to do some serious gardening this weekend. The backs of my thighs are still burning. I pulled weeds, moved plants, cleaned out beds, planted lots of flowers, pruned trees and fertilized. Serious gardening.

On the back fence, I have a flower bed that goes from one side of the yard to the other. It's very "organic" in that I don't do much to change it. I let it do what it wants, with just a little direction from me. I weave a few vines thru the fence, pull weeds and thin out the more aggressive friends. I do like to move plants from here to there and add an occasional plant. I also throw out seeds in the winter when I'm desperate for spring.

This is where my problem starts. My memory is not great. This comes in handy when I get mad at someone because rarely do I remember why I'm mad for more than a few days (although I will admit, I've been cultivating the skill of grudge holding recently, but that's another post). It's NOT good when you plant and move things. I throw out seeds with delicious anticipation and then immediately forget, not only what they are, but that I even did it. I've pulled plenty of what I thought were weeds, later to realize they were seedlings of expensive seeds.

While I was working in the garden, I noticed a great stand of plants. Right in the middle of the bed, tall and healthy. I pulled the weeds around it to give it more room, as I did with everything else that looked like a "real" plant. But then...I couldn't identify it. Nothing is blooming right now. The daffodils are gone and the amaryllis are going downhill fast. All I have are huge mounds of green potential. It's going to be great when it all blooms, but what if that group of plants, right in the big, fat middle, are weeds? What if they are insidious and take over the bed? I have weeds that I'm still fighting because I let them take a foot hold and I can't get rid of them. Can you help?

Larkspur.

These mean a lot to me. I first got the plant from a friend who got his plant from an older lady in the small town where he grew up. They are beautiful and remind me of him.

Phlox.

Another pass along plant. This one came from a 90-something yr. old lady to whom I delivered Meals on Wheels. Who knows how long she had them at her Riverside home. She and her husband built the house in the 30's and had been there ever since. I still drive by there, wondering if the family who lives there now knows its history. She also gave B lots of old magazines and clippings from the Kennedy assassination.

Purple coneflower.

A very bossy plant, it has taken over.

French hollyhock.

This is from the same friend who gave me the larkspur.

Shasta daisies.

Dahlias.

Not really suited for the area, but a gift from my mom. It always makes a valiant attempt to bloom.

Day lilies.

I think these have made it thru 3 moves. They were originally in a neighbor's yard when we lived in NRH. The neighbors moved and gave them to me. I took them when we moved and then moved them again to the Honeysuckle House. They spent several months in a bucket while I decided where to put them.

Mystery plant.

Look how tall and proud! Is it a trick, trying to look important? Do you recognize it? There will be prizes for correctly identifying it!