Aries Moon

Nnnnnnnnnngh. Rrrrrrrrrrgh. Aaaaaaaaaaaugh.

I've been working in my garden all day. All. Day. My lower back is throbbing, my thighs are like rubber, my calves hurt, and I make horrible noises every time I heave my bulk back up from kneeling or squatting. My tan has deepened. My nose has gone pink. Forget Tae Bo, baby. Try Garden Bo and feel the burn, in more ways than one.

I only bought a few things, as you can see in the photo above, at the garden center today. But somehow it's taken hours and hours to get them all planted. I'm changing over colors in the garden, and I have to transplant quite a few things to create the new scheme. For instance, I wanted the white Telstar carnations, deep velvety purple petunias, and white lobelia with pale purple throats for my long, narrow container. Some sky blue lobelia seemed to fit right in with the color scheme so I added that, transfering them from another bed. The verbena (lower left) went into a hanging container where it practically glows in contrast to the white ceramic pot.

I put the extra petunias where the sky blue lobelia used to be, next to the torenias. They'll probably take over, but that's okay. I'll put the rest of the lobelia over there as well, I think, continuing the purple/blue/white colors. Nothing's growing all that well in that location. I suspect I didn't get all the cat urine worked out of the soil. I bought some Miracle Grow to help that section out specifically, but I'm sure it will benefit all the other plants to be fertilized regularly. Now I've got the dark blue salvia left which requires a sunny location, and I'm just not sure where I'll put it. Wherever it fits, most likely, and hope for the best.

I replanted my round container completely. I yanked out the Disco pink geranium and planted it next to one of the euphorbia along the wall (neutral greens, no more clashing pink and red). I moved the yellow wallflowers next to the yellow and orange marigolds. I tucked in the spare dianthus next to the geranium. I put the lone Riviera Blue lobelia in a little space next to my bee balm so it will bring up the eye from the purple blues of the container to the purple red of the bee balm when it finally blooms. Then I planted Imperial Antique violets, all pale yellow and blush peach and hints of orange, with similarly colored fairy snapdragons. It's like a bowl of sherbet.

Aphids attacked my beloved abutilon, so I've been spraying it down with soapy water. I was afraid I couldn't get ladybugs to stick around my garden so I'm using chemical warfare. Let's not even talk about snails.

For the shade garden in the front, I'm beefing up the astilbe and hosta with two gorgeous specimens called Archangel (center right in photo at top). They have pointy silver and dark green leaves, and in the spring they'll send up long stems of yellow flowers. Also slated for some immediate color is a pot of bacopa, tiny little yellow and white flowering groundcover. All of that should overwinter nicely. The ferns have staged a complete comeback, so I'm going to leave everything alone for a while and let it fill in the rest of the summer.

The folks at Collectors Nursery e-mailed me to say it was "really hot" in Portland at the moment (i.e., over 60F), so they planned on sending out all new orders in September. I wrote back and said that wasn't acceptable, could they please ship them as soon as possible? No word, and no plants, so I don't know when I'll see my mouse tail plant or my blue hosta. I hate delayed gratification.

Did you know Xeney has put her garden journal back on line? Oh, and her regular journal, too. Welcome back, kiddo.


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