Notes From Zone 4

I started this year right in the front of the house. The hosta I’d gotten so cheaply from Walmart and potted up were doing so well that I wanted to get them into the ground. I think they could handle even a hard freeze if we get another one, so in they’ll go. I put

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Lisa’s out of town, so I took advantage of a rare nice evening to do some chores. I planted the accumulated swap plants: Purple monkshood, sweet woodruff, blue hosta, pulmonaria, plumbago, and something in a sixpack. I’m not sure about the plumbago, because the plumbago I found on the internet is zone 8 or 9,

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One of the species tulips is opened up today. It’s yellow and white, and so cute! These are the ones, unfortunately, that the mice at most of, though, so there aren’t that many plants. I think they are adorable, though. Maybe they’ll spread. It really barely looks like a tulip to me. The hyacinths are

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The shade garden thingie I’ve got going in the front of the house is doing really well. Of course, like much of my garden, it’s in prime bloom now, and the garden tour is in a week, but what can I do. It’s pretty, perfect, right now. Columbine, foam flower, bleeding heart, lungwort, hosta, ribbon

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I’m so busy out in the garden right now. I’ve still got four flats of perennials to get in the ground. I’m working in the bed in the front of the house, on the side of the porch. It’s pretty shady in this bed, so I’m putting in a lot of columbine toward the middle, and hosta around the edges. I still haven’t figured out how to line it where it meets the gravel driveway, though. I’m sort of hoping that the hosta will be enough of a barrier, but somehow I doubt that will work. Anything short of a stone wall will get killed by the snow plow, though, so I need to think. The window boxes look great out there, now that they are finally out of the basement and where they belong. I just love the electric blue of the lobelia, draping over the edges.

Welcome to High Summer! I was a picture-taking fool today, but I can’t help it. The garden is absolutely beautiful right now. Such a change, suddenly. There are tons of colors all over the place, and everything, it seems, is in bloom. My window boxes in particular are all very full, draping down nicely.

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