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.

First Bloom

Ahhh alas, my first bloom on March 29th, a bit late this year for the crocus. I'm late posting as well, I've been busy, busy mostly with my 8 to 5 job.

I did manage to get some work done in between rainy days. I finished the flower bed on the south side of the house. It was a little messy, over the winter the brick edging fell over in some spots.

I dug the brick edging line out about 6 inches more as well.

The orange daylily looks like it needs to be dug up and seperated, I hope to get to it this fall.


The main reason I started this blog was to create a journal of how my garden is doing each season. So... the plants on the south side of my house are as follows:

Tiger Lily or orange lily - lillium ancifolium (here when I moved in)

Hollyhock - alcea rosea (here when I moved in)

In the fall of 2007 I planted:
astillbe red fanal

carnation desmond - dianthus

daylily autumn red - hemerocalis

tenor tall phlox - paniculata

bee balm - monarda

allilium

iris

I hope to start the rose bed this weekend. The weather outlook is supposed to be sunny and warm. Let's hope! Rain, rain go away!