Last weekend was "Herb Days" at the farmer's market. They had several additional vendors selling herbs, though I still ended up mostly shopping with the same nurseries I go to every time. I try to be careful never to buy more plants than I can get into the ground that same weekend, and I managed to limit myself to only a few things. Now I wish I had bought more! Let's see, we got a purple sage, dill -- which I hardly ever use, but I hate having to spend $2 on a little packet of fresh dill on the few occasions that I do need it -- two unusual black-eyed susans, a couple of hollyhocks that promise to be really really tall, cardinal flower, something just called "Hummingbird Flower," and a scabiosa. This is going to sound silly, but the word scabiosa reminds me of the Harry Potter spell leviosar that they learn in the first book. Whenever I think of the plant I see Hermione Granger in my mind's eye, waving her wand in her cute snippy way and saying "Not scabiosA, scabiOSa!" Maybe scabiosa is a spell that gives you scabs.
Anyway, the scabiosa, hummingbird flower and cardinal flower are all for the flower bed by the oak tree, where we want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. The hollyhocks are for the sunny side of the house. Which I have finally measured and planned out and started work on this week. The first task is to dig a path. Not only because it's a big bed, but also because we need to provide access to the crawl space and utility meters. Digging the path is actually easier than I expected. The soil in this bed isn't quite as wretched as down by the road. It's still heavy, stony clay, but I can actually get a shovel into it. I was really afraid I was going to have to dig the entire path with the mattock, but yippee, I can use a shovel.
So I think the procedure is to dig out a layer of soil where the path will go, smooth it out, then add whatever path material we are going to use. I would love to have beautiful stone pavers, but looking at the budget we may end up with black plastic and mulch instead. I've worked a couple of afternoons now on the digging phase. If I had pushed it I could have probably gotten the whole first part of the path (from the driveway to the crawl space) done today. But my plan is to work only an hour or two each day, working steadily but never overtiring myself.
Besides, this evening after work and yardwork, we took Thirteen out for a walk with Lisa, Chris and Lizzie. Which was great fun. Lizzie was curious at first but then mostly disinterested in Thirteen, which was perfect. Thirteen is fairly shy and likes other dogs, but doesn't like it when they get in her face and jump all over her. I think she really enjoyed walking around in the same general vicinity as Lizzie. And everyone was really nice about walking slowly with us. It wasn't great exercise for everyone else, but it was a whole lot for Thirteen. She's sacked out now.
5 Comments
Probably before you read my LJ, I did a quiz about plant names vs. disease names. Like plumbago, scabiosa really sounds like a disease. I call them the common name--butterfly flower, maybe? They need a lot of sun, so I only have one corner where they will grow.
I lucked out in that when we moved in, there was a pointless flagstone patio in the middle of the yard and a home-built BBQ with flagstone components. Both are gone now, and the flagstones are recycled into paths. Otherwise, I use pine bark nuggets. Black plastic under that is a great idea. Otherwise, the weeds stay down, but the path gets higher every year! I have one big path that I really should dig out and redo with black plastic. I also like to buy cement stepping-stones, especially with an anthropomorphic sun or moon on it.
I never heard of plumbago but you're right, the name sounds so much like a disease. I guess because it sounds like "lumbago." I'm surprised that scabiosa needs sun because the tag here said part shade. Mine is in full sun from about 4 pm on, and I was worried that would be too much. Maybe it needs more sun further north.
I had been wondering what happened to the atomic barbecue! Nice that you were able to convert its parts into a path. Pine bark nuggets sounds like the way to go. I can't allow my path to get progressively higher, since the door to the crawl space opens out. I think that door has been blocked all winter by the mulch and paper I put down to kill the weeds.
i greatly enjoyed the walk with thirteen. after many years of being afraid of dogs, it's nice to become acquainted with such nice doggies that i can trust.
When you were a kid, did you mom ever tell you that spiders were more afraid of you than you were of them? Well that's definitely true of Thirteen.
i know i heard that about something, although maybe not actually spiders. but yes. thirteen is probably the least intimidating dog i have ever met :)