One Warm Day

That's all we had, just Saturday was very warm. But all it took to really hurry the garden along was that one warm day.

Blood root - I planted some 20 years ago,
and the ants spread the seeds around.
I've seen them in the wild within a couple hundred yards
of my garden, but I'm pretty sure mine are descended
from my plantings because how far do ants travel?

The National Arboretum had their native plant sale on Saturday and I hustled down. I gave myself a $200 budget but only spent half of it. I didn't go with a specific list, only a general one. They only had two vendors, but each had a very big spread.

So I bought eight plants for my $100. I got one each of blue indigo and carolina lupine. They are both pea family, and the flowers are similar in shape though different in color. I planted them along the fence at the south end, where they may be too shaded by the pine and the fringe tree. The indigo, at least, will not be able to be transplanted so let's hope it gets enough sun.

I'm afraid "hope it gets enough sun" will be a recurring theme. I realized as I tried to site the plants around the garden inside the fence that I don't have a clear picture in my mind of the sun and shade patterns currently in the yard. The Big Spruce fell March 2 last year, but last summer I didn't get a good idea of how the light has changed, other than in general there is more. It'll keep changing, but losing such a big tree is a step change, not gradual as from yearly new growth.

I also bought three yellow wood poppies and three "blue ice" blue stars. I am on a quest for the threadleaf bluestars (Amsonia ciliata) of which I have one beautiful, distinctive, clump I'd like to replicate. It's at the point of my corner, hard on the street. It has nice enough light blue flowers in spring, but becomes an amazing yellow-orange cloud of foliage in the fall. But this one, Amsonia taebermontanae, has more vivid blue flowers, and may also have orange foliage, though not a cloud due to the larger leaves. I scattered the poppies around, and the ants should also seed them about over time. I put the three bluestars together in a clump, along the street fence, near the southern red oak.

I have a history of over-buying plants, and then not planting them right away, and some die. My new plan is to try to buy in small enough chunks I can plant them right away, which worked this weekend.  That actually will not be totally possible, as there is benefit in ordering volumes from the mail order places to save on shipping. And the next plant sale on my calendar will be a huge one.

I may also decide not to buy very much this spring, and study the garden instead. Last year was very hard on it, with first the Big Spruce falling on it, and the workmen removing it tramping everywhere. Then the fence construction and the workmen tramping everywhere, and dumping subsoil on top of good soil, helpfully disposing of excess soil to even out low spots I had created for plants that like damp places, putting raw woodchip mulch over everything even though I asked for well-rotted leaf humus, and on top of all, unrelenting rain in the wettest year on record.  Something to recommend this plan: I can sit in the garden unmoving, and yet I'll be studying it ("see how the shadow has moved in the last hour!") and thus will be productive. Something else to recommend this plan:  it's way more cost-effective. What's not to like?