gardening 101

It's only been a couple of days but the gardening seems to be going well. So far I've mulched the raised bed that once was our herb garden and planted Georg's potted herbs in it; attached extenders to the downspouts to draw water away from the foundation; gone through a pile of old hoses, figured out which ones were usable, connected the good ones to the spigot and coiled them up; and planted two big azaleas on the shady side of the house.

I know it's the wrong season for planting but it's been a mild summer and I'm watering them every day so I hope they'll be OK. The soil is terrible on that side of the house -- lots of clay and tree roots -- so even though I added lots of good soil, I don't know how well they'll do in the long run. Although it might be good if they don't thrive, because I accidently bought a larger variety than I wanted (8' tall!). It won't bother me if they don't get that big.

I also tried to clean the driveway (which is covered with dirt from the landscapers) with a hose, but it took a lot of water so I stopped. We're not having a drought anymore but I'm still not comfortable wasting water. I'll sweep the driveway or something another day.

Overall I'm pleased with the first few days of this project. I'm trying to focus on work that will have a long term effect, like planting perennials and shrubs. That helps me feel like I've accomplished more, which (I hope) will help me stick with it.

Does anyone know of any good books on Southern gardening? There are so many different plants at the garden stores & I don't want to waste time and effort on plants that won't do well in this climate. I was looking at these books, but I'd rather just get one. I don't want to spend all my gardening time reading books.

The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists
The Southern Living Garden Book
Month By Month Gardening in the Carolinas

I just realized that I totally forgot to post about the only real goof by the landscapers: I had asked them to leave the rosemary and sage plants alone, but they pulled out the sage. I saw the hole in the ground on my way to lunch with David and Hervé, while we were working on the room, and couldn't help but exclaim "Oh no, my sage!" Which the landscapers heard, and were very apologetic. I told them it was no big deal, I could plant another one. At lunch I decided that it was better this way. Because the old sage plant had gotten really big and leggy, and I had planted it too close to the edge of the bed so it stuck out into the driveway.

Then when we got back, we saw that they had found the sage plant in the refuse pile and put it back! It looks terrible: only a handful of leaves survived. It was nice of them to try and undo their mistake, but I'm still going to pull out the poor old sage plant and put in a new one, further from the edge of the bed. We're going to the farmer's market this morning to see if the herb plant people are there.

So anyway, I'm not at all upset about the goof with the sage. In a way they did me a favor. Now, if they had dug out my huge rosemary bush, that would have been really upsetting.