Garden Notes

Another gardening weekend. Perennials are sprouting up all over. Sometimes I can't remember what's where. I've tried marking things, but my markers seem to end up all over the place by the next spring--due, I'm sure, in no small part to the fact that my garden shares its space with my giant dog. Being surprised by what pops up, though, is half the fun (for me). Here's some columbine that I put in last spring. This was not a surprise--I've been hoping it does well so that I can put in more. These lovely primroses came with the house.
I did have a couple surprise returns from last year. Here's some parsely that somehow survived our cold Pennsylvania winter. He was partially covered by a yarrow plant, so I moved him to his own spot. I always end up with more parsely than I can ever use, but I like to grow it especially for our parakeets.
These pansies are also from last year--in a rush to do fall cleanup, we stored this pot in the garage without emptying out the dirt. One afternoon over the winter, I was in the garage and noticed that the plants were still living--and blooming. So as soon as it was warm enough, I moved the pot back outside.
My garden, which is mostly perennials and which I'm trying to convert as nearly as possible to native plants, is doing well enough that I needed to divide a bunch of things. Instead of composting the extras, as I used to, I offered them to friends. I wasn't looking for a swap since, partly, I'm trying to make room for more of a variety of things. But when one friend offered herbs and some flowers, I couldn't resist. She gave me some thyme, oregano, rudbeckia and morning glories.

Because we're having our house painted, I wanted to move a few things to save them from being trampled. Here's Kate helping me transplant some astilbe. As you can see, we worked until we were "dog" tired.