Coming round the bend!

The Pike's along my work commute route had been taunting me all week:

30% of all Perennials!!!

It took all I had to wait until after work on Friday to stop in for a peak but boy am I glad that I did! Perennials, were on sale, annuals were on sale, soil ammendments were on sale, all Monrovia products were on sale, summer bulbs were on sale - if you shopped wisely, the WHOLE place was on sale! Wahoo! To maximize my spending, I loaded up on quart-size perennials and opted to stay away from the annuals. I intend to focus on foundational plantings this summer, so it's everygreens and perennials for me.

I picked up Blue Mazus for it's creeping & semi-evergreen habit, Goldenstar for its yellow color, Foxy Foxglove cause what's a cottage garden without it?, Goodness Grows Speedwell, Blue & Gold Spiderwort for it's variegation and purple flowers, Dwarf Eared Coreopsis for more yellow a reportedly evergreen slow-spreading grown cover, Sherwood Purple Creeping Phlox another spreader, rounded out by Garden Phloxes Franz Shubert and Eva Cullum for their butterfly appeal.

My focus for this weekend was the corner bend in the slope which is just to the left of this section.  This section was covered in vinca (or some weedy creeper), an assortment of weeds, more than my fair share of rocks and a few clumps of volunteer liriope all heaped upon sloping heap of Georgia red clay.  This is by far the most treacherous part of the slope.  I fell a couple of times trying to navigate it; luckily, I wised up and starting using my rake as a cane.  But that was nothing compared to what this poor little beetle was going through.  I watched it try to climb up time and time again with no success.  Everytime he made some progress, he'd lose his footing an tumble back on down.  It was pure comedy to watch.

And just to the right of that (you can just see Panel 9 at the right-edge)

(A smart man would insert a picture of this area after the weeds were gone but before I started planting.  A smart man would have charged his camera battery before getting to work.  I was short a smart man yesterday!)

So after several hours of slipping & sliding, weeding, digging, rocking and amending, I walked away with this:

And the view from the gate:

This long shot shows how the two areas are connected:

This isn't quite as exciting a transformation as last week's.  I intend to tuck some plants into the rock crevices.  I'm saving the area in front of the rock for our first vegetable garden.  I'll be back with pictures of that once we get the plants in (herbs, tomatoes & peppers).  We're starting late so that should be before the week is out.  And once the rock fairy or Santa leaves me some more rocks, I'll rip out that dern monkey grass.  I hate that stuff.  It is ALL over this yard.  Big HUGE clumps of it.

Stephanie