Spring Insanity

 Every Spring I ask myself why didn't I buy a truck instead of a car?  At least I did buy a hatchback which helps me get smaller loads home, on my own. For bigger stuff I have to rely on my brother-in-law, the famous John. 

I've gone back and forth on what to do about foundation plantings, and decided on these pots, as the easiest for me to do on my own, being that I am officially an old lady. 

I do have a plan, but this is step three, and I have yet to do steps 1 and 2. Those would be 1. digging out the earth where the pots will sit, 2. cover that spot with weed barrier and mulch and then 3. finally placing the pots on that mulch. 

I don't have the mulch yet, but the bottom third of the pots will also be filled with mulch before I fill the rest with potting mix. Lowe's and Walmart have mulch for $2.50 for a 2cu. bag. I will need LOTS. 

What goes in these pots? Hmm, definetly shade plants, like hosta, heuchera, ferns, astilbe, begonias, impatiens, and coleus. This photo above was taken at 1:30pm, and the pots are in total shade. 

 I moved my flower pots to the deck so my landscape guys could level and seed the yard. It's great seeing the perennials return. Mostly. 

I admit I didn't keep up with watering last summer but the daylilies, a couple of daisies, some coneflowers and some salvia managed to survive in most of the pots. I have already added some bleeding heart roots and a few corms of purple oxalis. Then I went on a quest to find a pink dogwood with buds on it. I came home with a white one with buds and a red one with buds, but no pink one. .

 Then today I went looking again. I ended up going to Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia where I finally found a bud filled pink dogwood and two Japanese Maples, all of these are from Walmart. The prices were so much better than at Lowe's, and their small size made it easy to get them into my car. These two trees were labled Bloodgood, one of which is obviously not. It's green, for heaven's sake and even the trunk is green compared to the darker reddish brown of the real Bloodgood. I don't care what it is, I love it.

With any luck it might be a Coral Bark Maple which is my fave. Even if it isn't, it has beautiful leaves.

 I started a bunch of lettuce, from a variety seed pack, so I have no idea what is growing here, but there are 25 sprouts and that is way more than any one person needs. However, they are pretty when they become mature and I can add them to my flower beds as filler and then give them away later.

 Now I am getting ridiculous, but this is a shot of a purple oxalis emerging, and I am pretty sure you won't be able to see it, even if you look hard. But I know it's there and it makes me so happy. I dug up a bunch of corms from my previous house and I have planted them in the first porch railing box. This is a nursery box and as they emerge I will be transplanting them everywhere. 

And in the house I am rooting lysimachia (Creeping Jenny) and plan to use them as spillers in the front yard pots.

OK, that's enough for today. It is raining off and on and of course that is so good for the grass seed and all the other living things yet to come.