SOME CHANGES

I'm too frazzeled to go looking for a cute banner tonight.

Some changes in the yard in the last week. Pictures as things play out. The butterfly bush, AKA the "shrub that swallowed the yard," is history. We knew they could be enthusiastic growers but didn't realize they were "that" enthusiastic. Twelve feet tall and counting is too much when the main gardner passed her eightieth birthday this year. The replacement is a very nice crepe myrtle known as Petite Pinkie. It's supposed to get about six feet tall and best of all won't do it over night. I'm looking at the elderberry with a jaundiced eye but maybe we'll stick with keeping it pruned for now. So far all it's really producing is branches and foliage. Lots and lots of really long branches. I haven't seen very many berries so far, but maybe it hasn't had time to do much. Right now I wouldn't say no to turfing it and putting in another blueberry bush. Their leaves turn such a nice red this time of year.

The two spanish lavendars are going. Again, the plants just got too big. I didn't think anything could put a damper on cone flowers but these guys did. And the plants are very dense. They are so "there." I find I prefer the longer stemmed, lacier, "smaller" plants. The replacements will be a couple of yellow potentillas. Very, nice low growing shrubs with a small very yellow flower. Love the sun and won't need a lot of water. We'll keep the purple cone flower where it is and supplement with two others. They'll be a nice complement to the daylilies.

We made a nursery run today and came back with some nice grasses, a flax plant and some information. We can special order through them. As we work out what native plants we want to use we can order what they don't ususally carry. We not only get the companies "bucks" on purchases, but loyalty points as well. Didn't know about those. Between the bucks and the points we saved about fifteen dollars today.

Took out the side deck and replaced it with a smaller one. We'll bark the opened area before it turns into a mudflat. It'll keep while we work things out. One corner is getting that flax plant and the grasses. I also see containers filled with herbs. We need to put in a path and I keep seeing those slate flagstones so we'll have to check out some sources and see how much it'll cost to do it.

Spent some time going through a book we have on container gardens and thinking that these are great ideas for spot type gardens. And we already have a good start on plants, it's a matter of getting them where they'll really shine.

Oh, and Oregon got skunked today. I didn't catch the game but I knew the news wasn't good when the guy on the NW Cable News started talking about WSU and "Duck Soup." :-)

Time to get up close and personal with my pillow.