The Weather Has Changed (At Least Outside)

Spring has sprung, and I've begun with my usual seasonal enthusiastic gardening and grandiose landscaping plans. I'm the most optimistic brown-thumb gardener ever, always plowing ahead, buying a zillion new plants, the bulk of which inevitably do one of the following: (a) die immediately, (b) get crowded out by my shortsighted and half-assed space allocations, or (c) cling to anemic life until the final frost kills them altogether. You'd think (a) would be most annoying, but it's actually (c) that breaks the will, usually by about July. The unbearable, unmanageable plague of weeds usually factors in by then too.

Nonetheless, another year means another chance to get it right. Here's a tour chez Laura's yard, spring 2008.

My beebalm, planted last year, has survived! I'm very excited about this, because it smells just lovely and the pink flowers perk up this dreary back fence, which used to be weeds and rocks (the former owners were big fans of landscaping with rocks). I just put in some sweet alyssum in this bed too. Again: smells pretty.


On the other end of the same bed, the purple coneflowers are also making a resurgence!


And on the theme of plants that didn't die, one of my parents' gifts, my bleeding heart, is flourishing and actually blooming.


And my garage bed--again, beset by rocks but getting a bit tidier--with new perennials.
And, my garden, which I've decided is going to be a tidy, symmetrical grid, rather than a plot of weedy dirt with a couple of overgrown tomato plants. That's my lavendthyme plant on the left.