Quilt Talk: Mid-July Lawn & Garden Report

While laboring in my yard for the last month in the heat, I began to ask myself "Do other people get this nutty about their plants and yards?"

Then I visited relations on July 4th, and again this weekend - and realized the summer yard tour is a long and cherished tradition in my family.

Many of my early memories involve gardening activities.

So, I come by it honestly enough. If that makes me kooky, so be it!

FYI - when I moved in to this house, this side was nothing but hard, dry, rocky bare earth. One day last summer, DS2 came in from mowing and said, "Mom, I'm SO proud of you!" Of course, I asked why and he said the ugly side of the house was now green and beautiful! Ahhh - the stuff that mothering memories are made of!

I'll be dividing the hosta and lillies pictured here NEXT spring.

On the back side is a gorgeous rust and yellow leafed plant that I'll split next year and move to the front flower bed. I'd tell you the name if I could remember it. I bought it on impulse 2 or 3 years ago and plunked it in wherever I had some extra space. While weeding this bed, I realized I approach gardening much the way I do quilting. I start with one clear idea of just how everything should be. Then my creative juices get flowing and I tire of doing the same thing over and over - so I abandon my plan and throw in something totally unexpected - just to see if people notice!

My front flower bed was overrun with ferns and ground cover. You could barely see my impatiens or perennials. So I pruned it all. I'm learning the hard way that SOME forms of ground cover are not worthwhile. The one I am most happy with is my evergreen vinca in the hosta bed, which I supplemented with a dozen additional plants last night.

FYI - if you remember my surprise to find wild strawberries growing there, I eventually determined that they were an ornamental variety - cute to look at, but they tasted terrible! That made it a LOT easier to rip them all out.

This flower bed around my lamp post will also be thinned next year. Its only 3' in diameter and contains tulips, irises, black-eyed-Susans, clematis and one yellow hosta. The roots for all of the above are intertwined so its anybody's guess how that will turn out!

These hostas were divided and planted a month ago. I'll also be putting in a border - but not until the weather cools off! This may be an even be an early fall project.

I inherited this ring of hostas from the previous owners, and have never thinned it. Maybe next year. Very few plants are willing to grow beneath the pines, so my boys put in a rock wall (visible only in early spring) to create a raised bed in the center.