Yesterday, while driving back to the house, I noticed a new wildflower growing on the side of the road. It looked remarkably similar to a plant I purchased at Wal-Mart last week.
So today, on my way to do some watering, I stopped and dug a couple of them up (along with some orange milkweed that I believe will attract Monarch butterflies, if I remember correctly) and took them out to the garden. As I suspected, it was precisely the same plant (to my amateur eye) as I had already put in, except the wild version was much taller and healthier. I put the new wildflowers in right next to the store-bought variety. It will be interesting to see how they compare over time.
All told, my purchased plants have struggled much more than the free plants I have acquired in various ways. I don't think of it as twenty dollars wasted, as long as I've learned my lesson. I think I'm going to be a bit more discerning with purchased plants from here on out.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
What you've missed, pt. 1
A fair amount happened prior to this afternoon.
Last year, we put in 10-15 little trees and shrubs of different varieties. Of course, I don't really remember what they were. One of those has survived, some sort of thorny shrub which may or may not produce fruit one day, but upon reflection it was not put in a good location.
I was told the whole field was going to be cleared, so I headed out to check on the garden and see what all I might want to protect. I hadn't given the garden much thought for almost a year, so it was nice to be back out there. I cleared away most of the brush from the rocks I put in last year as a patio of sorts and looked around to see which plants had survived, if any.
When I was satisfied that the area I care about would not be cleared - we have fallen logs from nearby trees in between the mowable area and the garden - I looked around for the aforementioned trees and found just the one. It has grown nicely into a large shrub, but unfortunately it was in an area that I am sure will be cleared when our guy comes through to collect his hay bales.
So I dug it up, thorns and all, and moved it back to the garden. It cut me multiple times, but I've continued to water it. It got grumpy the first day and let a bunch of its leaves turn yellow, but it seems happy now. I may have planted it closer to the seating area than I should have, what with all the thorns, but I figure I've moved it enough.
Last year, we put in 10-15 little trees and shrubs of different varieties. Of course, I don't really remember what they were. One of those has survived, some sort of thorny shrub which may or may not produce fruit one day, but upon reflection it was not put in a good location.
I was told the whole field was going to be cleared, so I headed out to check on the garden and see what all I might want to protect. I hadn't given the garden much thought for almost a year, so it was nice to be back out there. I cleared away most of the brush from the rocks I put in last year as a patio of sorts and looked around to see which plants had survived, if any.
When I was satisfied that the area I care about would not be cleared - we have fallen logs from nearby trees in between the mowable area and the garden - I looked around for the aforementioned trees and found just the one. It has grown nicely into a large shrub, but unfortunately it was in an area that I am sure will be cleared when our guy comes through to collect his hay bales.
So I dug it up, thorns and all, and moved it back to the garden. It cut me multiple times, but I've continued to water it. It got grumpy the first day and let a bunch of its leaves turn yellow, but it seems happy now. I may have planted it closer to the seating area than I should have, what with all the thorns, but I figure I've moved it enough.
In lieu of a journal
So, I had the thought the other day that it might be interesting to jot down what I'm putting where, and which plants came from which family member, that sort of thing, just in case someone might care down the road, when I most certainly will not remember.
I considered texting Heather on the spot, since she was on her way to the store, to ask her to pick up a little notebook I could write in, but then I thought, "No, it probably won't be quite the right notebook if I don't pick it out myself." Then I realized that getting the notebook myself would require a trip into town, and just as the whole project was about to be abandoned altogether, it occurred to me that I could simply use this blogger thing as a garden journal. Quaint? No. Easy? Yes.
So here we are. This blog is not meant to be entertaining, or necessarily interesting. I do not promise to post with any regularity. My hope is that if you have a question about the garden in twenty years that the answer will be here. We shall see.
I considered texting Heather on the spot, since she was on her way to the store, to ask her to pick up a little notebook I could write in, but then I thought, "No, it probably won't be quite the right notebook if I don't pick it out myself." Then I realized that getting the notebook myself would require a trip into town, and just as the whole project was about to be abandoned altogether, it occurred to me that I could simply use this blogger thing as a garden journal. Quaint? No. Easy? Yes.
So here we are. This blog is not meant to be entertaining, or necessarily interesting. I do not promise to post with any regularity. My hope is that if you have a question about the garden in twenty years that the answer will be here. We shall see.
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