News from the backyard

We're doing a bit of replacement planting in two flower beds in the back yard. If you happened to have read my blog last summer, you may remember that we were waging war against invasive gooseneck loosetrife plants, trying to kill off the invaders that had taken over one of the flower beds. Several years ago, we found the graceful, bobbing heads of the plants delightful. That was before they became evil.

After multiple applications of weed killer, followed by smothering the bed with construction plastic and baking it in the hot, late summer sun, then digging to remove the vast and massive tangled root system (with Charlie's much-need help), we abandoned the flower bed for the winter, and hoped for the best.  I forgot to mention the curse words. They didn't help, either.

This spring we were happy to discover that the bed was free of the menacing gooseneck plants, so after working in some new soil and fertilizer, we started putting in new plants. I've been following a plan created by LaVonne, who is a Master Gardener and knows what will grow well and not require a lot of fussy upkeep. It's fun to look for the plants, but hard to find some of them.

We have a monster rabbit problem this season. Not monster rabbits per se, but they may as well be. They have managed to eat every leaf and flower off every annual I've planted so far. The perennials fare a little better, although several hostas and coneflowers have been chewed on. This especially frustrates me, because the hosta plants look raggedy and sad with bites taken out of them, and the coneflower flower heads have been snipped off by bunny teeth, and left next to the plants. Listen here, rabbits:  if you don't like the taste of it, don't destroy it...just hop away.

I'm waiting to hear from Edenvale, hoping they'll get in more Tiki Torch coneflowers so I can finish planting. I need five more of them, so if Edenvale doesn't come through and you happen to know where I can find them, let me know!