Internet Order Ranting!

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it. ~Author Unknown

I occasionally like to order plants and gardening supplies online. It's convenient, a time saver and you can find rare items.

Most of my garden projects are planned to be done over the weekend. With my full time job and my daughter's spring soccer starting up, I have limited time. I do have a timeline planned out for projects and I base it on when items ship or when my seeds I started.

Unfortunately it doesn't always work the way you want it to.

I received my order yesterday from DirectGardening.com. I was a bit annoyed that the order came without receiving notification of when it would ship and that the plants came packaged loose in a plastic bag. I found out (after the fact, of course) that this company has had negative reviews on The Garden Watchdog on Daves Garden website. Now, I'm not totally naive and knew ordering from this site might have been questionable (based on the low, low prices), but I went ahead, with the thought that I wouldn't be out much money if I had any problems.

Here's the list:

• Alaska Shasta Daisy
• Butterfly bush .....(one of which is dead!)ARGHHH!
• Grecian Windflower
• Pink Weigela
• Dwarf gaillardia
• Torch Lily


• **I received some free bulbs as well but they aren't marked as to what they are** uh duh!
  

My plan is to plant these along my fence line facing south just east of our mini barn. I have some butterfly bushes that I planted last year and I just love them. As I mentioned, the ground isn't ready yet (still grass) but I did manage to plant the shrubs. I dug the holes and surrounded the shrubs with newspapers and mulch in hopes that the newspaper will kill the grass. The rest of the bed I need to dig and till before planting.

Ok, I'm done ranting....I hope for sunshine this weekend and not rain.

Shrubs

The garden is tilled and ready for planting! It took all day to till the clay soil and due to starting from scratch on turf.

I planted some butterfly shrubs and some dwarf burning shrubs along the fence line. Both will be bring some color each season from spring through fall.


Butterfly bushes have fragrant blooms and attract butterflies. They bloom in late spring and continue into early summer. Drought-tolerant and utterly carefree, butterfly bushes is in one of the easiest shrubs you can grow.





Dwarf burning bushes have an intense red foilage color in fall. The deep dark red leaves almost glow with color in the fall. This plant is tolerant of shade, but prefers full sun to produce the most vibrant fall colors. Burning Bush transplants easily and may be sheared. The corky wings on the twigs hold winter snow, outlining the branch structure. The orange and red fruit is ornamental if produced in quantity, but plants vary in the amount of fruit they produce.



Some other favorites of mine:



Sunshine Blue, this shrub leafs out bright gold in spring, and keeps its color right through the worst summer heat. Elegantly pointed, toothy leaves are so stylish that Sunshine blue would be a fine choice for the sunny shrub border.

Hydrangea Endless Summer reaches 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. Happiest in partial or dappled shade, it takes more sun in the northernmost portion of its hardiness range. Blooms in zone 4!