You Grow Girl™

Yesterday I experienced one of those garden-related time warps. I'm out on the deck everyday yet for some reason I hadn't noticed how quickly certain things had grown. It's almost as if some things just came out of nowhere. For instance the garlic has a flower bud. Garlic flowers look like strange alien creatures from outerspace. The lemon verbena wins the grand prize for "Plant That Has Grown the Most in the Last Few Weeks". When I first planted my sad, vine-like transplant, I didn't believe it was a bushing plant. I even double and triple checked with every herb book I had on hand just to be sure. I mean, the thing was a miserable little twig with a few leaves. But within what has seemed like minutes, it is literally bursting with leaves! Second prize goes to the lavender plant (downstairs). It has been growing there for at least 4 years. Its companions have come and gone, but this one has managed to survive ever winter successfully. Well this year it's gorgeous. It's HUGE and amazing and all of this seemed to have just happen overnight! I wish I had it growing right next to my desk so I could smell the flowers and leaves all day long.

The downstairs garden is overgrown. Or at least was overgrown until I went at it with pruners and a shovel. Last night it looked like it was going to rain, so I took it upon myself (and Davin) to lay down the mulch that had been sitting there for ages. It was a good time to do it because the ground was still wet and it was about to rain some more. There were tons of weeds coming up so we dug those up and then laid down the mulch. That's when I noticed how insane everything was. I like an insane garden but mine never seems to have that gloriously insane look that you see in the magazines. Mine sort of sputters with insanity in one area and then sparseness in others. For instance the globe thistle is just crazy. It's pushing out the sedum and the lilies that are sharing it's space. I'd remove the asiatic lilies but they're about to bloom and I can't get at anything anyways because the thistles are EXTREMELY prickly and I am EXTREMELY allergic to them. Nice to look at, not so nice to touch. Don't get me wrong... I love those things. When I planted them last year I never imagined they'd get so big so quickly. I just can't get near them is all...

I pulled up tons of plume poppy. You all know the story by now. I've told it enough times. Nice plant with huge tropical-looking leaves and pretty little flowers, but it will take over if you let it. I try not to let it but I'm awful when it comes to pruning. I'm great at telling other people when to chop the hell out of things but when it comes to my own plants I'm afraid. I was too lazy to get out the pruners last night so this morning I went out (early even) and did the deed. I cut back the red currant bush, the lamb's ear and more plume poppies. It looks a little bit better now, but to be honest I don't care for the garden as a whole. It's good in sections, but overall it's kind of blah.

Last night, after we finished mulching I had a bit of extra energy left and thought I'd finally dig up the grass and whatnot that is growing over what used to be a nice rock garden. I say used to be because people have trampled all over it and I just gave up. They killed thyme and lupins and all kinds of other plants that I can't even remember anymore. So a few weeks ago when I was at the plant place down the street I bought some crappy annuals to put in that spot. It just looked so sad I had to do something. Since I know it will inevitably suffer the same fate as the other plants I thought I'd put in some annuals that were cheap, and had the brightest, most obvious flowers possible. That way anyone who was confused by the whole concept of garden vs grass would have some pretty obvious indicators available to them to aid in making the right decision. The right decision being to NOT trample across it. It looks like I took a plant gun and shot in some plants, but at least that looks better than what was there. I'm not proud, but it's better then nothing.