A Day in the Life of My Garden- May 18, 2009

I took a few days off to relax after many straight days of work. I lucked into decent weather so I made time to commune with my garden.

This poor little Spirea bush has been taunting me for a few years now. I love its lime green leaves next to the purple of the Campanula Glomerata. It is a prize winning combination. But the bush has been dying off in bits and pieces each year.

This year was the worst. About 80% of the bush is not leafing out- no amount of pruning will hide this fact. I have always had difficulty in giving up on a plant that is not quite dead. I feel it has a certain right to keep trying.

Unfortunately gardening is about creating beauty. This bush is not beautiful. So I began the terrible task of surgically removing its ugliness from the masses of young Campanula.

I consoled myself with some visions of health & beauty, like the just leafing out Smoke Bush & White Bearded Iris.












Or the electric blue of the almost unwelcome guest of Ajuga.








Or the silvery lamb's ear next to a pink azalea.

Blue Asters

I have been in Vermont for a few days and the mornings have been very cold here, but I returned to find that my asters are still looking pretty good. I thought I would give my beautiful blue aster a starring role on my blog. Isn't her foliage and fullness something to behold?

Here are her beautiful blue flowers. They are the classic aster form but it is the shade of purple that veers towards blue that makes your heart sing in these cool days.










And here are one of the stems bent over to nestle against the Helene Von Stachen Stachys. Isn't it a lovely contrast? Disregard the weeds muddying up the scene. My garden has gone to hell in a hand basket recently.