More Garden Work

Here is the Lozenge Bed, after a wash and set edge and lime. Don't ask me why we call it the Lozenge Bed, because the story is way too long (and totally uninteresting unless you know the quirks of my kids), but I will tell you that it had a lot to do with complicated but amusing in-jokes.

I mulched the perennials around this bed heavily last fall, mostly because they were newly planted and I was worried about them surviving, and when I hauled off all the leaves I was struck by how healthy they all looked. Now I am remembering all those little pots I bought (mostly on impulse): Astrantia Major, Sidalcea, Polemonium, Lobelia Tupa, Nettle-Leaved Mullein, Persian Coneflower, Scabiosa, Monarda (the shockingly gorgeous "Marshall's Delight"), "Princess Victoria Louise" oriental poppies, Belamcanda chinensis, Hakonechloa macha, and, last but not least, some of my favourite Lysimachia (a goose-necked variety called "Snow Candle").

See the rocks on the path crossing it? Not the slate, the rocks. Those rocks were originally hauled off a beach up Island with the intent to form an ever-so-lovely hearth floor for the living room fireplace. Unfortunately, we later discovered that we'd need to reinforce the sub-floor more than we'd care to in order to make this happen, so all those lovely flat rocks been co-opted by the Lozenge Bed Pathway (and yes, I am using the royal we here).


Here is the new asparagus bed we put in today. Richard the Handy Man often saws and screws together the structures for my projects (mostly because he makes them sturdier than I ever would) and this box was no exception. I think he is becoming resigned to it, actually, because I hardly had to do any arm-twisting bribing wheedling to get him out there building me a box of sorts. It might be hard to tell from this angle, but the site is rather sloping, so the box needed but front and sides. We used scrap cedar and a sod back wall. I'm getting good at skimming sod and building walls now. Must be all that Little House on the Prairie I've been reading. It measures about 5' by 6'. And into that bed went 2 massive bags of chicken manure, a load of compost, a giant bag of peat moss, and 10 Jersey Giant asparagus root bunches.


A parting shot for all you who like the humble iris reticulata. The iris has it all for me, almost: colour, form, fortitude. They are all there. All it lacks is a spicy scent of some kind. Who knows, maybe there is a scented miniature iris out there somewhere and I just don't know about it...