A day in the garden

I've had even more than the usual number of plants waiting to get in the ground and finally had a day to do that. I planted the Mr. Stripey tomato from WFF in my new cedar barrel, surrounded by basil from the sale at Rappahannock Area Adult Activities earlier this month. The Mortgage Lifter tomato went into the walkway garden, where I really need to get a grip - at the moment it's become a holding place for a bunch of stuff, though I do have a tiny vision for it (butterfly bush and a few shrubs to go in next to the aucuba). Still to be planted - where? - is the Riesentraube grape tomato. And they all need tomato cages, which I ruthlessly weeded out of the shed in a fit about a year ago.


One of the colocasias ('Black Magic') is now in the ground next to the aucuba, and I have high hopes that it will make a dramatic black/purple statement there (thanks for that idea, Martha and Becky). I noticed that McClure & Zimmerman's label advises me to plant it responsibly. Somehow I doubt that it will become invasive in our dry heat. The other is slated to go into the pot on the front steps, along with some white caladiums and probably some coleus.

Pruned the forsythia vigorously and felt like a woodcutter in a fairy tale as I bundled the branches together and tied them with twine to put out with the trash (experience tells me forsythia branches are too whippy to go through the chipper/shredder successfully).

Planted the May apples and Jack-in-the-pulpits from Judy's garden under the oak tree.   

This is what they look like in her garden.
The Kirengeshoma palmata that I bought at Merrifield is doing well there, its maple-like leaves waving in the breeze. I'm glad I didn't put it in the front garden, which was the original plan, where it would get too much sun and be out of scale. Planted the forget-me-nots from Judy in front of the akebia.

Planted a Jackmanii clematis to one side of the trellis, and a moonvine from C&T at the farmer's market on the other. Thanks again, Becky and Martha! Will see how they do in the partial shade.

Weeded most of the bishops weed (aka Goutweed, aka 10 Plants You Should Never Buy (Because I Guarantee Someone Will Just Give Them To You) from around the leucojum, though I didn't really get all of the underground roots, so of course it will come back. The kind I have, thanks to Judy's compost, is not even the variegated kind that This Garden is Illegal can find a place for. Luckily, it's not too hard to keep it at bay as long as you keep at it. And anything taken from this part of the garden is never transplanted elsewhere lest it spread.

Looking at the above, it's hard to believe this was four hours of hard work (including mowing the lawn), but it was!