the early garden
june & july 2002

once everything got growing and started blooming our errors became obvious. from this learning experience we are making a list of everything we need to move and rearrange next spring.

in the rear bed we had planted some asclepias incarnata of which we had extra and they got really tall and ugly where they are. we will move them over by the pond (still in progress) for spring. we also have quite a few plants that could be considered "rock garden" plants like prairie smoke and blue-eyed grass. next year we will build a rock garden and they can be transferred then. meanwhile we will bury some rocks in the garden and see how that improves the look. we haven't quite figured out the placement yet.

also in the rear bed we had purchased (we thought) ratabita pinnata (gray-headed coneflower) but when they bloomed we found out that we had gotten ratabita columnaris (mexican hat). we had planned on yellow flowers next to my purple coneflowers but instead we got red flowers there. yuck! we have written to my source and asked him to send me the flowers that we thought we bought. still no answer...

viewing the plow through the butterfly weed, switchgrass and daisies june 2002	plow bed: goldenrod, prairie cinquefoil, little bluestem, rudbeckia fulgida june 2002
plow bed july 2002	story of the plow: we have since figured out that this is a horse-drawn corn planter but we all call it a plow anyway. we found it under the lilac after we had been living here for two years :-) it was probably abandoned there by the farmer who sold this property for development sometime back in the 50's. we can't believe no one noticed it in all this time. we are happy to keep it here as a cool garden ornament (as in: in the end, the prairie "won".)
rear bed, left side: butterfly weed, prairie dock, new england aster, tall coreopsis, rosin weed, little bluestem, indian grass, sweet indian plantain and milkweed (which has gotta go!) june 2002	rear bed, left side, closeup: butterfly weed, prairie dock, rattlesnake master june 2002
rear bed, left side: the milkweed is on its way out as is the butterfly weed. the plantain and coreopsis should be blooming but aren't. july 2002
rear bed, right side: penstemmon digitalis, rudbeckia nitida, ratabida columnaris, and more june 2002	rear bed, right side, closeup: spiderwort, foxglove beardtongue, mexican hat june 2002
rear bed, right side: rudbeckia nitida much larger and the mexican hats have filled out. july 2002	rear bed, right side, closeup: spiderwort, foxglove beardtongue are both in bloom. july 2002
rear bed, right side, closeup: mexican hat july 2002	rear bed, right side, closeup: spiderwort july 2002
rear bed, right side, closeup: penstemmon digitalis july 2002
these were the "leftover" plants that we didn't have anyplace to plant. they are doing very well in this spot; we amended this poor area with a goodly amount of compost and tilled well june 2002	echinacea, monardo fistulosa, rudbeckia and an old daylilly we weren't able to kill june 2002
the "leftovers" still going strong; notice the weird-looking "weeds" towards the front over on the left. we had no idea what they were but let them grow anyway... july 2002	switch grass, shasta daisy and butterfly weed july 2002
new plants under the lilac: lady ferns and columbine july 2002	front yard bed: more mexican hats (long story) july 2002
horrible looking garage bed: we tried really really hard to kill these plants in april and here they still are! july 2002
garagebed: our first monarch on the milkweed july 2002	I've even managed to keep kane's mother's day gift alive so far! july 2002
pond in progress july 2002	pond in progress july 2002

{ back to the garden's first season }