We completed a trade with another gardener, today. One of several gardening trades and swaps of late, but this one brought some changes. Not a change to the plan or the design. Not a major change, anyway.

The front flower beds have one butterfly bush apiece, now. Small, for the moment, but at maturity they will be well over six feet tall. I planted them where we planned to put the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (contorted hazelnut) trees that were to go in those beds. Trees, small, though they are, vs bushes. I was concerned about the gas and water mains that run under the front flower beds. so... Changes.

All but five or six of the irises in each of the front beds are now gone, as well. Replaced by the butterfly bushes and some old fashioned day lilies. One coneflower apiece is now in those beds, as well. This is in addition to the hollyhocks, glads and blazing stars. Not to mention the alliums that are still in a pout over being transplanted. Plus, about thirty-five daffodil bulbs in each bed (from a previous trade) that we won't see sprouting until next spring. Plus, a few of the alyssum that we planted are now growing in those beds, too. Those beds are going to be kinda crowded. Which is just the way I wanted them to be.

Six white irises, all together, were transplanted from other beds to the front flower beds. In time, I'll replace the red and orange glads along the end of the walkway with the white glads from the long bed. They'll go with the white hollyhocks in those beds and should - in time - offer a stunning contrast with the color from the flowers in the rest of those two beds.

Then, because of this last trade, I had to spend the best part of a looong day and half bustin' my butt in the garden gettin' everything ready...including some hasty work in the shade garden on the north side of the house. I had no plans to work on the shade garden until next year, except for a couple of little experiments, that is. No compost, no nuthin' in that bed, except for some Miracle Gro. All I had time to do was turn it over shovel and grade it to drain away from the house.

Four white begonias and four lobelias went into the shade garden this afternoon. They're all tiny, at the moment. One of the two elephant ears came up and is looking ok, if not great. Two of the five bishop weeds I transplanted to that bed early last spring have survived, but they aren't really doing much at the moment. They're supposed to spread out a bit...like mint and such. iow, they'll take over if you're not careful, which is why I planted them in that bed. The shade garden is all but isolated from the rest of the garden and the other beds. Later on, we'll plant hostas and foxglove and their ilk as border plantings around the lobelias and elephant ears.

Then, the city finally mowed the lot on the south side of our property...and left all of those grass clippings. Great mulch and compost...and more to get, if I want to work at it a bit. It's gettin' to be a long trip with that wheelbarrow. The lot is five or six acres, all together, and I've raked over a third of it, so far. Dozens of packed wheelbarrows full of grass clippings. Yeah. It was worth it...even if I do get some funny looks from people. Tall, gimpy, skinny old man, raking up an empty lot with a big red rake and a big black wheelbarrow. Don't forget the cheap shades and the bandana.

The grass in both the front and back yard is looking good and is growing fast. Which means that I'm mowing grass about every four or five days. It's either that or hire a bailing crew and be done with it, I reckon. keeping in kind that every foot of this lot has been re-graded and re-leveled over the last couple of years, the grass is looking pretty good.

Plus, the normal gardening stuff. Pulling weeds, picking green beans, planting summer stuff, harvesting carrots and taters and that sort of thing. It's all kept me kinda busy the last few days. Dang near like a full-time job. Thankfully, things should slow down just a bit, now. I'll spend most of the next few days in recovery mode - layin' in bed and sittin' around the house - in quite a bit of pain. but, this time, it was worth it. Gardeners know what I mean when I say that. Other people look at me funny. What do they know, eh?

Next on the list is harvesting and drying the jumbo garlic. It needs to come out, anyway. I gotta plant the huckleberry seeds - from yet another trade. The garlic is in the way. I've got more jumbo garlic planted in that bed, but there'll be plenty of room for the huckleberries to grow. That's where the plan says they go, and that's where they're goin'.

The front flower beds do not look the same.

Changes...

Here is a link that might be useful: Changes.