The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Category Archives: Garden problems

Garden lessons learned this year

Posted on by Posted in Containers, Garden problems .

Before I get to the garden lessons learned …

It’s early June, 1985 and I will be turning 13 years old in a few weeks. School has just let out for the day and a bunch of us prepubescent boys are gathered around the lockers, planning our afternoon activities. If I had to guess, I am wearing Jams shorts, a Gotcha t-shirt. and a killer coral necklace. Surfer wares for a non-surfer but damn if I don’t look good. It doesn’t matter that I had never set foot on a surfboard and still haven’t to this day. I was a fashion follower, not a leader.

The plan is to meet up at the middle school for yet another intense game of baseball. The fences are in close so we can all feel like Darryl Strawberry and hit a ton of home runs. It is even possible to hit the other school building across the street with a mammoth home run; that only adds to the excitement. If a window shatters we all run for our lives; always a good time when you are a pre-teen. Oh yeah, and anything hit to right field is a foul ball since we never have enough kids to cover the entire field. I hate that rule.

After collecting my books and heading out to my mom’s car in the parking lot, I inform her of my afternoon plans. Baseball is good clean fun, right? I won’t be staring blindly into the TV while playing Atari all afternoon. This is a no-brainer.

I can remember her response like it was yesterday.

“John, I don’t want you go. There is no supervision and anything can happen. Not today”

Are you f’n kidding me? (I didn’t say that to her). I’ve done this a dozen times before and nothing ever happened. I am not telling my friends that my mom said “no”. C’mon, do you want your oldest child to be the laughingstock of the 7th grade? I need this.

Needless to say, I talk my way into going and my mother regretfully drops me off … within walking distance of the school.

Game on.

It is a great time. No broken windows, but still fun. It’s a close game and comes down to the last out of the game to decide the winner. My father and youngest sister wait for me along the left field fence and I shout “Just one more out.” I have to focus in left field and there is no way in hell I am leaving now.

What happens next changes my life forever. And I swear to you it is the absolute truth. Mom – can you leave a comment below to confirm this really happened as I remember it? I need to keep my credibility in check. Thank you.

Line drive is hit to left field. I am ready to make the last out and secure the win. I go down on one knee to make the catch and end it in style. Everyone will jump on me with excitement and even my family will witness my greatness.

The ball completely misses my glove and drills me above the left eye. The field is dead quiet. While I guess it hurts like hell, I feel no pain. None at all. I immediately flash back to my mother’s warning and become furious. I even blame it on her as my dad ushers me to the car.

Lesson learned – Mom is always friggin right and you cannot do anything about it. Even though the black eye brought me much desired attention in school the next day, I was never the same playing on a baseball diamond again. And it all could have been avoided if I listened to the wise one.

So about those garden “lessons learned” …

To begin, I realize you’ve had your fill of these already. You’ve read about them on other sites, on other blogs and even on TV shows (that last one is an intentional joke, there are no garden TV shows anymore.) By now, we know them all. So I apologize in advance if you’ve had your fill.

But my lessons learned are killer. They’re better than all of the others combined. I’m talking life changing. Go get a notepad and pen and jot these down and keep them in a place where they can be seen daily so they reinforce how you go about your gardening ventures in the future.

I will preface my 5 lessons learned with this: I did very little in the garden this year. There were a few reasons for that and here is how it breaks out:

40% time constraints – kids, family, job

25% pipeline shock – no need to discuss this further

25% intentional – I’ll go into this one in a bit but I wisely took a break when nature called for it

10% laziness – I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Yes, every winter/spring I allege that this will be the year I transform my garden into a mini Longwood Gardens. If you are a regular reader, you know how that has turned out. But this was the first year I took a more realistic approach.

No long term goals.

Just do what I can when the time allows.

No rush.

No pressure.

And you know what? I feel like it paid off in spades.

Garden lessons learned #1 – Patience

It’s amazing what happens when you just let your garden develop on its own. No tweaking or moving plants around every other day. The plants establish themselves and those empty and bare areas fill in quickly. It’s like giving the garden a chance to breathe and stretch its legs.

Like I mentioned before, I did a lot more sitting back and enjoying this gardening season. I think I grew a little bit tired of constantly changing things up and playing plant musical chairs.

The area of the garden below has been a continuous project over the years. Last year I added perennials that I knew would establish themselves quickly. I didn’t do a thing this year and I’m thrilled with the results.

planter bed

Other areas have benefited from my absence as well.

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Garden lessons learned #2 –  Smaller plant palette

I know by now what plants work well with my conditions. Anything that the deer ignore and anything that is OK with consistently wet soil. This includes ornamental grasses, deer resistant shrubs like Clethra and Boxwood and perennials like Bee Balm, Joe Pye Weed and Lobelia.

This is what I have been handed on this property and I am going to embrace it. No more attempts to try and force in plants that will never thrive here. There is enough variety within these plant choices and I will just continue to explore that avenue.

Here are some examples of my, dare I say, smart plant choices.

Clethra and Joe Pye Weed.

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Bee Balm and Joe Pye Weed.

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Clethra, Joe Pye Weed and ornamental grass.

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Bee Balm and ornamental grass.

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Garden lessons learned #3 – Repetition

This ties into the previous one and is an age old tenet of most garden designers. Repetition of plants, shape, color, etc. is pleasing to the eye. It is what separates a garden from a collection of plants. Repetition leads the visitor through the garden and enhances the visit.

By limiting my choices of plants, I’ve somewhat inadvertently (I’ll take just a smidge of credit) created repetition throughout my garden.

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veronica

 

Garden lessons learned #4 – No planting in the heat of summer

Yes, another well known “not-to-do” among gardeners all over the world. Planting in the heat of the summer with the extreme temperatures and lack of rain is a recipe for disaster. But I’ve always been defiant and figured I could plant whatever I want, whenever I want.

This really hit  home for me one day this past summer. I was updating my plant list/spreadsheet and referenced recently purchased plants through various online plant sellers.

I kid you not, half of the plants I had ordered over the past two years had died. Most of them I had forgotten I had ever purchased. That is not good. That is what you get when you stick a small and vulnerable plant in the ground and forget about it … during the wrong time of year.

Just plain dumb.

Garden lessons learned #5 – Start small plants in containers rather than in the ground.

I’m still not sure if scientifically, this is the right way to go but it has been working so I ain’t stopping. Too often I’ve witnessed small plants purchased online not make it through the year. They easily get lost in the shuffle with all of their larger brethren. That means not enough water and potentially not enough sun if overshadowed by other plants.

My solution has been to “raise” these plants in containers so I can carefully watch them and give them a good head start. Since they stare me in the face at all times, I know to keep them watered.

Case in point is this Sambucus ‘Lemony Lace’.

garden lessons learned

This was no bigger than 5-6 inches when I purchased it this spring and now it looks fabulous. I am debating when to introduce it to the wild and may keep it in the container for one more year.

So there you go, please fire away with your thoughts and comments.

 

 

 

 

 

Correcting a mistake – “Carex appalachica” edition

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems, Ornamental grass .

A little over a month ago, I shared a planting dilemma with you all. Without much thought, I had planted 10 Carex appalachica under a River Birch tree in Fall of 2014. And as you will soon see, it resulted in a bizarre-formal-half circle that haunted me each time I set eyes on it.

carex appalachica

Ouch, it still hurts.

I knew at some point I would overhaul the design but struggled to come up with an alternate plan. I knew that this sedge prefers dry soil and could thrive in competition with tree roots.

With that in mind, I finally settled on a new location – under my crabapple tree. In literally 15 minutes time, I removed the ugly Ajuga that was under the tree and weaved this magic.

carex appalachica

All is now well in my world.

I’m thinking about adding something else amongst the Carex to really frickin nail it. But for now, I am content with the new, less formal design and the hideous prior attempt is in the rearview.

BTW, I can’t say enough about how much this sedge glistens in the sun, especially after a rain.

carex appalachica

Thank you yet again Hoffman Nursery for turning me on to Carex appalachica.

 

The forgotten Spirea and another garden TV idea

Posted on by Posted in Comedy, Garden problems, Shrubs .

Here’s what’s going on out in the garden these days:

The hydrangea is nice and all.

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But isn’t it that much better when viewed through the Andropogon (Big Bluestem) ‘Red October’?

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Speaking of the oh so wonderful ornamental grass, ‘Karl Foerster’ is in full bloom and is a solid vertical accent in numerous spots throughout my garden.

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True story, two years ago in a fit of rage, I heaved my three “dead” Spirea ‘Anthony Waterer’ into my woods after they seemed to have bitten it over the winter. Not one of my absolute faves, but a solid performer that was always ignored by the deer. Three more damn holes to fill in.

Flash forward to this spring and I spotted one of the “dead” Spirea looking all awesome in the middle of my woods. I could see pink flowers blooming amongst the brush.

Typical. Show it disinterest and it thrives.

Not one to dismiss a shrub that appears to be competent, I jumped into the tick infested woods and gave this guy another chance. If at first you don’t succeed …

So far so good.

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And I swear to you, another alive and well Spirea has been spotted and I’ll be grabbing that one too. Maybe I have some sort of magical forest with healing powers? Maybe the ticks brought it back to life and we can now understand their real purpose. Time to chuck some other under performers in there and test it out.

What a difference even a week or two makes.

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lady's mantle

I was on top of removing the spent flowers on the Lady’s Mantle, Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ and Penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’ in hopes of keeping up their appearance as we jump into summer. A definite lesson from seasons past.

The Astilbes are all in bloom.

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First Bee Balm bloom of the year

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With oodles to follow.

Seriously, there is no bigger bloomer in my garden than Monarda. It has spread everywhere and I friggin love it. Just wait until I show you in the next few weeks.

First Coneflower bloom.

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Meh.

Some Veronica I got on the cheap from Lowe’s and have no idea if I like it or not.

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Achillea ‘Pink Grapefruit’ has arrived.

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A Bellflower (I think) that is EVERYWHERE and I don’t have the energy to remove it. Although with the thick carpet, it is suppressing the weeds beautifully.

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And I’ll leave you with yet another TV show idea that I’ll regret not having pursued.

Have you ever watched Chopped on Food Network? Contestants are given various ingredients with which to pull together and create some semblance of a meal. I’m talking like watermelon, salmon and crushed peppermint. A real challenge to present something edible but the amateur chefs always manage to pull it off.

What if we tried the same with plants that weren’t the least bit compatible? It could work, right?

The idea came to me when I attempted to put together the container below.

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I had a collection of annuals given to me by an uncle and I tried to make the best of it. We’ll see how it turns out, I’m not exactly a container gardening expert.

Are you with me? Would you watch that show?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Help

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems, Ornamental grass .

I can confirm that the neurotic part is accurate.

And it was this gosh dang view that did it.

carex under tree

First off, how awesome are the Carex Appalichica above? They look unbelievable and downright radiant when back lit by the sun.

carex under tree 2

Back on topic …

I cannot stop myself from gazing at the above referenced view. It dominates my thoughts day and night.

I see it when I am ravaging the cupboards in the kitchen.

I see it when I shut off Family Feud on the TV because it is oddly inappropriate and not for a nine year old girl.

It’s the first thing my eye moves to when I set foot out on my deck and threaten the rabbits.

I see it when I pace in the upstairs hallway while brushing my teeth, trying to up the “step” count on my Fitbit.

And here’s the thing. If it draws the eye in I guess it is a good thing, but is it? I can’t decide if I love it or hate it. Look at it again please.

carex under tree

It’s too formal, right? But formal works sometimes, right? I’m over thinking this right?

With complete compassion for those who are unfortunately afflicted and diagnosed with true OCD, I fall just short of having it according to my own self diagnosis.

I require 7 strokes under each arm when applying deodorant.

I am a serial stacker (ask my wife). If papers are stacked I feel in control, even if the important ones are lost in the pile.

If you saw my desk at work you would think no one lived there. Coworkers have moved my family photos a few inches just to see if I’ll notice when I arrive at my desk. Spolier alert: every damn time.

I bunch things in odd groupings without even realizing it.

I could go on but I’ll spare you.

In my true domain, the garden, is where it gets trickier. I despise almost all formal gardens and love those that are wild and free. Except I cannot do wild and free … or formal. I operate in this middle ground where the design feels in control but not too much in control. Controlled chaos if you will. Hello neurotic.

My M.O. is to plant 1, 3, 5 or if I’m feeling nuts, 7 of a like plant and keep them in a triangle/quadrilateral pattern. In control yet trying to fool myself that I’m letting it all hang out. It makes me f’n nuts and I wish I could just embrace the chaotic. Does anyone else think this deeply about their damn garden? If so, please start a support group and invite me immediately.

This dilemma has a direct impact on the development of my now ten year old garden. When you feel the need to constantly evaluate the location of plants in your garden you become a tinkerer. A tinkerer never relaxes. A tinkerer moves the same plant three times in one day. A tinkerer never allows a plant to establish itself. As a result, the tinkerer’s garden never looks mature. Hi, I’m John and I am a tinkerer.

I also kick ass when it comes to weeding because of my neurosis. I see all weeds in all spots and need them gone. I even get a bit shaky when I can’t get to them. But I’ve never sprayed a chemical in my life. Just give me a trowel and maybe a flat head screwdriver and I’ll dominate. I can get at the toughest weed like a bulldog but then have the delicate touch in order to get the entire root system. It is an art form and don’t let anyone else tell you differently. For $50 and hour I can be had.

Can we go back to the photo one more time?

carex under tree

The grasses look too formal don’t they? Or does the sweeping curve make sense? Does it need to circle the entire tree? Should I just be happy they are thriving in that spot? Did you tune out already?

 

 

 

What I did wrong in 2014

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems .

“I can handle making tacos for dinner. Seriously, it is more about ‘preparing’ than it is actually ‘making’ dinner. It is one of the few meals I can’t screw up.”

That is an exact quote from me to my wife on January 5th, 2014. I know this exact date because since 1/1/14, I have logged 2-3 events from each and every day into a spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet I want to capture the lesser and easily forgotten moments to prevent them from collectively leaving our memories over time. Then on 12/31 this year (and in subsequent years), I’ll read the list off to the family and together we can laugh, get angry all over again and even cry. Brilliant, I know.

So back to the tacos.

The reason this moment stood out and was worthy of my spreadsheet, is that while I prepared the dinner perfectly fine (including black beans seasoned with lime juice, diced avocadoes, etc.) I did so with expired meat. Like really expired meat.

My wife had purchased the ground turkey a few days earlier and had taken the precaution to freeze it. However, dumb ass found another frozen package, this one beef. One he had frozen himself a few weeks earlier as a means to prevent it from stinking up the refrigerator until the way old meat could be properly disposed of.

I still remember the look on my daughter’s face when my wife said “This doesn’t taste like turkey” and I said “That’s because it isn’t.” Even she could put one and one together. Everyone’s mouth opened in unison and we had what appeared to be a well choreographed spitting out of food.

Fortunately, we were only a few bites into the meal when we called it off. But I was still convinced I had poisoned them all. I remember staying up late that night anticipating that horrific sound of the toilet bowl seat being violently raised followed by the inhuman howl. That never happened and I am happy to report I have “prepared” tacos on numerous occasions since. Fool me once …

While I haven’t reviewed my spreadsheet in detail, I’m sure it is filled with other John screw-ups. Some funny, others not so much. And as I write this, I’m thinking about a garden-only spreadsheet of events for next year. How great would it be to look back and laugh/cry at what I did wrong in my garden in 2015. We learn more from our failures than our successes right?

Speaking of which, here are just some of my failures in 2014.

I grew close to ten different varieties of tomatoes this past year and they were a welcome sight/taste all summer. But as much as I enjoyed them, I probably wasted at least half of them by not keeping up with the harvest.

tomato

Next year we grow fewer and we let not one go to waste. Shame on me.

Same goes with my broccoli plants. I didn’t harvest one stinkin head and allowed it to go to bloom before even noticing it. How the hell does that happen?

broccoli

Some times an unexpected visitor is a welcome sight. Other times it isn’t. It begs you to yank it. And you promise yourself you’ll do it. And then you never do.

goldenrod

Here is what I will now call a “half grass”. Literally half of it never grew after it was cut back in late winter.

gracillimus

And this is who we blame.

spring cleanup

I should have been a better supervisor/task master so I have no one to blame but myself.

This iris (along with numerous others) is begging to be divided as seen with the sizable hole in the center.

iris

Well that never happened even though it appeared on my to-do list for months on end.

Fool me once, shame on you (with “you” being a Monkshood); fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times, shame on me x 2; fool me four times and well, I’m a bloody fool.

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Seriously, I’ve attempted to grow Monkshood four times and each time it literally disappeared within a few months. Some times you just have to throw in the towel even if all signs and conditions point to it being a good idea.

There is color and then there is too much color.

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I can’t tell you how close I was to ripping all of these plants out and starting over all while they were in full bloom. No, I wasn’t going for a red, white and blue theme. I don’t even remember the logic I applied when I pieced this together in early spring. It still annoys me to this day. It has since been rectified, but bad job, bad job John.

Yes, that is poison ivy that I ignored all spring/summer/fall and now I have no hopes of getting anywhere near that spigot in the future.

poison ivy

I continue to waste the impact and awesomeness of this Molinia ‘Sky Racer’ by keeping it solo in this yet to be developed garden bed.

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molinia

The goal to eliminate more and more lawn did not take a step forward this year.

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My lack of originality and creativity when it comes to container plantings continued.

heliotrope

pansies

Two consecutive years where the rabbits didn’t allow Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) ‘River Mist’ to grow at all.

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A peek behind the curtain

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems, Ornamental grass .

A nice looking ornamental grass – Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’ to be exact.

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Until you pull back the curtain and see that only the front half of the grass is actually growing.

gracillimus

The blame falls squarely on my underachieving kids as I let them cut down most of the ornamental grasses this past spring.

So your lesson for today – don’t trust kids with power tools, they will only disappoint.

Into the wild (sort of)

Posted on by Posted in Blooms, Garden problems .

When we moved into our house ten years ago, one of the draws was the privacy afforded by the wild growth and woods at the back of our property. Neighbors are great and all, but hanging in your backyard without any eyes on you (deer being the exception) is pretty damn cool. Not to mention the enjoyment of seeing nothing but nature’s gift while enjoying an after dinner cocktail or two on the deck.  

In ten years, I’ve only walked through this wildness twice. The first time was with my son who was three at the time and was dumb naive enough to believe we were actually in the rain forest. We had a great time until we stepped out and realized we were covered in ticks. Not good.

The second time was to chase down the dog who escaped into the unknown one winter. It took me close to 45 minutes to locate her as she managed to get inside an area fenced off with barbed wire. I nearly took my leg off trying to hop inside so I could carry my 75 pound Labrador Retriever to safety. I’m convinced this is where the deer hang at night and sit around the fire planning their assault on my garden. I’m OK with it as I’d rather they hang here safely than venture out and encounter one of the thousand hunters in the area.

This wild area is rather nondescript the majority of the year until the beginning of August. That is when the super aggressive Purple Loosestrife appears. And it appears every-friggin-where:          

It looks great from a distance with the waves of purple weaving in and out and then in and out again. Of course I also realize what a thug this non-native perennial is and just how invasive it can be. Read this piece on the invasiveness of Purple Loosestrife.

I’ve accepted there is nothing I can do about it other than pulling it when it comes to visit my garden from time to time. It is just too pervasive and it would be an overwhelming task to try and eradicate it.

I will admit though, it does bring in massive amounts of creatures and my daughter and I like to check out who comes to visit (some, more welcome than others):

Phase 2 of the backyard wild growth display is when the Goldenrod blooms. My wife is a severe allergy sufferer and when we first moved into this house, I thought for sure we were inundated with the dreaded ragweed. I was in a complete panic until I investigated closer and realized it was truly Solidago. Thank the good lord. If you ever wanted to know the difference between the two, read here. Goldenrod is also a thug, but it does not contribute to allergies.

The Goldenrod literally started blooming this weekend and the activity on the blooms is intense:    

Ailanthus Webworm Moth

Within a few weeks, it will be the annual purple/yellow explosion of two aggressive bastards.

But we also had a third entrant into the display earlier this summer and this one was more than wanted. Out of the blue, we had at least 25 Milkweed plants appear:

Super cool and a chance to educate the children on the plight of the Monarch butterfly. We have seen little action on these plants to date, but will remain patient.

I’ve also just started to see Swamp Milkweed popping up in a few places along the back of my property so the few plants I added myself last year are apparently spreading the wealth:

As always, nature is way more interesting than the man-made garden.

Time to move on from the Daylily

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems .

Oh joy, they are back again:

A few years ago I wrote about my frustration with the daylily and now I can safely say, without hesitation, that “frustration” has officially evolved into “repulsion”. While I only own 3-4 different cultivars, I think I can comfortably say I don’t like any of them.

While there is some value in the fact that they reliably return year after year, could grow on my gravel driveway or on the sidewalk without issue and provide a shot of color in the summer, I throw up a little in my mouth each time I see them in bloom at McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts or at each and every one of my local gas stations.

Life is too short to be lazy and grow ugly plants. It is time for a proper divorce.

To prove just how serious I am, here are 5 things I would rather do than be forced to live amongst these garish creations while in bloom:

1)Listen to this song on a loop for 24 hours straight

2)Eat a tomato sandwich with extra mayo.

3)Go on a cross country road trip with this guy

4)Get a New York Yankees tattoo on my forehead

5)Grow an entire bed of only Yuccas and Hostas

Carry on.

Good riddance Northern Sea Oats

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems .

Just short of four years ago, I raved about a plant that I had only recently discovered at that time.

I implore you to please ignore that post as I am here today to take everything back I had gleefully written on that balmy July afternoon in 2010.

I can now state with 100% confidence that I despise and will never entertain the idea of planting a Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) again in my life. In fact, in terms of worst garden decisions I’ve ever made, planting a mass of NSO in a moist and open location ranks only behind my asinine decision to plant mint in a raised bed that had zero means of containing said thug.

While the grass has its appeal with the oh so pretty little oats.      

It reseeds like a mutha f’er in every possible nook and cranny and they are impossible to pull out cleanly.

 

In the Fall of 2012, I attempted to control the reseeding by cutting the grasses down early and removing the “oats”.    

 

That failed miserably and did not make a dent in my quest to control the seedlings from taking over. They were everywhere that spring. I was SOL with the NSO and it made me an angry SOB, PDQ.
 

 

As this spring approached I looked back on some of my old photos to see if I could justify keeping these around any longer. As you can see in the pic below, they aren’t exactly “appealing to the eye” in front of the three Panicum ‘Northwind’. Yes, you can question my design sense with that combo, but you really can’t question the fact that these ain’t all that good looking.

 

While I am kind of the king of over promising and under delivering (for proof, click here and here) I vowed to finally take corrective action this spring. And I am happy to report that is exactly what this world class gardener recently accomplished.

I dug out and disposed of the mass of Northern Sea Oats and a trillion seedlings, planted two new Clethra ‘Ruby Spice’ in their wake, placed cardboard down over a large section of the “affected” area and mulched heavily.

It is truly only a start, but “Operation NSO Removal” is underway.

More to come.

How not to relax

Posted on by Posted in Garden problems .

I had every intention on Sunday afternoon to simply take inventory of all that was going on in the garden. No shovel, no pruning shears, not even a container to throw weeds in. You might call it a sojourn or gentle stroll or if you were me, you would call it a walk amongst awesomeness. It would be a chance to enjoy new blooms, or buds or even continued foliage growth without the need to do anything.

And after a good three seconds of staying the course, we suddenly had a change in plans. The f’n dreaded to-do list was created, updated on the appropriate Excel document labeled “to-do” and each line item was color coded based on the date it would get done. This isn’t some silly fodder for another blog post, I can send you all a copy of the document as proof. Gardening as “relaxing pastime”, ha, that is for someone else who doesn’t understand the severity of what we are dealing with here. Here’s a taste:

The Siberian irises should be close to blooming, but I am consumed with the need to yet again divide so many of these that have formed bare spots in their centers:

Now that all of the Clethra’s have leafed out, I have to prune off all of their spent blooms from last year. Why didn’t I do that on a slow late winter’s day?:

And just like that, the peonies are in bud. And just like that, it is time to fend off the deer so I can cut a bunch of these and roll in the bed with them give them to my wife to add to vases all over the house:

 

The poison ivy is everywhere and it is time to finally address it head on. Need to check my wife’s schedule this week:

Oh I suppose you would like to be planted some time soon?:

“Deadhead for more flowers”. Oh yeah:

My little raised bed needs reinforcements now that the tomatoes have been planted and the deer have all tweeted out that information to each other:

That dead spot on the boxwood has been eating away at me for weeks and I have no excuses:

Time to research what has happily reseeded to see if it can stay or has to go:

If I could move that Carex just 6 inches to the right, I could start to lessen the shakes that have developed:

What the f is growing under my Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’?:

Brown is the new green, right? No?:

What Baptisia did I not remember planting here? Will it possibly have enough room in the future? What can I plant around it now until it fills in? This is so relaxing:

I am so glad that I have improved my spacing of plants skills:

 

And now I am even more stressed recounting the story to y’all.

 

How about something a little light before we end it?

 

Don’t even ask about the inspiration for this one. Just know my neighbors have the same exact concerns.

Maybe my daughter has the right approach.

And by right approach, I mean get dressed up in my dance wares, dance my ass off and then kick back and enjoy getting the stress out. Girlfriend doesn’t have a care in the world.