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muckefuckPerhaps as long ago as last year, I mentioned to fig that I was stealing the neighbours' columbine seeds in order to try getting a patch going in our hellstrip. He said he'd collect some for me from his own garden. I thought maybe he'd forgotten, but then he mentioned it again recently. He said he'd be at Market Days, but I didn't like the idea of navigating that nonsense with a pocket full of seeds. In the end, he was too ill to go, so he said he'd mail them to me.
Then two weeks went by and I assumed they'd gotten lost in the mail. (He only lives a few miles from me, which is why I'd proposed picking them up in person.) Last weekend, though, a fat envelop showed up. Not only were there four different varieties of columbine, he'd also included some celandine wood poppies (another shade-loving perennial that naturalises well) and Arkansas bluestar.
Of course, that coincided with both an uptick in my social schedule and a shift to hot humid weather, so I haven't really had a chance to put anything in the ground. Which is bad, because September is predicted to be cold, which means weeks before the first frost are more precious than usual. I tried starting some columbine in pots on my own, but so far nothing has sprouted. Now I've got four times as many pots planted, so hopefully at least one will come through.
I also took a handful of seeds to toss in the hellstrip, but first I had to scrape away several inches of mulch in order to give them a chance of touching soil. As long as I was doing that, I figured I'd transplant some of the variegated grass along the sidewalk. It's doing quite well in two areas, but I wanted to make a border of it. Now a border exists; we'll see if it takes.
I would've planted some poppies and some bluestar as well, but it was getting dark and I felt a spattering of raindrops, so I retreated inside, counting on the rain to take care of the watering for me. It didn't. For what seems like the umpteenth time this summer, all the precipitation went south of us. Supposedly more is on the way, but I don't want to leave the survival of those plants to chance, not after I've fouled up my back over them again.
Then two weeks went by and I assumed they'd gotten lost in the mail. (He only lives a few miles from me, which is why I'd proposed picking them up in person.) Last weekend, though, a fat envelop showed up. Not only were there four different varieties of columbine, he'd also included some celandine wood poppies (another shade-loving perennial that naturalises well) and Arkansas bluestar.
Of course, that coincided with both an uptick in my social schedule and a shift to hot humid weather, so I haven't really had a chance to put anything in the ground. Which is bad, because September is predicted to be cold, which means weeks before the first frost are more precious than usual. I tried starting some columbine in pots on my own, but so far nothing has sprouted. Now I've got four times as many pots planted, so hopefully at least one will come through.
I also took a handful of seeds to toss in the hellstrip, but first I had to scrape away several inches of mulch in order to give them a chance of touching soil. As long as I was doing that, I figured I'd transplant some of the variegated grass along the sidewalk. It's doing quite well in two areas, but I wanted to make a border of it. Now a border exists; we'll see if it takes.
I would've planted some poppies and some bluestar as well, but it was getting dark and I felt a spattering of raindrops, so I retreated inside, counting on the rain to take care of the watering for me. It didn't. For what seems like the umpteenth time this summer, all the precipitation went south of us. Supposedly more is on the way, but I don't want to leave the survival of those plants to chance, not after I've fouled up my back over them again.