VACATION AHOY

Stuff To Do During My Glorious Week Off

* weeding of doom
* civilize the east bed (more on this in a second) and the foundation bed out front
* order mulch and spread it all around the backyard
* find some scarlet runner bean seeds (home despot possibly?)
* move tripod thingy to somewhere seeds will actually grow
* plant scarlet runner beans or possibly morning glories at base of tripod thingy, as well as planting other miscellaneous after-last-frost seeds
* shop for affordable but classy-looking support for prairie joy rose (obelisk?) preferably not from big box type place

So the east bed remains kind of a mess, mostly due to an over-abundance of ferns. Apparently I wasn't ruthless enough in digging them up last year. Will have to rectify this and find some way of filling the space - some begonias, maybe, for a temporary solution. The bee balm I put out front might end up moving back here too, since it has been very droopy and unhappy looking in the full sun.

The intarwebs seem to suggest that the goddamn creeping jenny might not be such a bad thing, provided the plants it grows around are tall enough that they don't get overwhelmed. I dunno. I may attempt to yank it back hard as well. I have no illusions about actually eradicating it, but I suspect any measure of control will only be achieved by regular yanking campaigns. WHAT FOOL ACTUALLY PLANTS THIS STUFF. I ask you.

Other possible companions for the delphiniums:
* astilbe
* digitalis
* coreopsis
* black-eyed susans (these didn't transplant so well last year, but worth trying again I guess)
* lady's mantle
* sweet william
* another clematis

Sigh. Stupid shade.

In there already is globeflower, masterwort, canterbury bells, purple geraniums, sarah bernhardt peony, rose campion, and the david austin rose (called teasing georgia). To complicate things further, several of the above have been munched on by the resident groundhog, whom I have been trying to discourage by dumping kitty litter down his bolt-hole (Ed Lawrence advises that this is a surefire way to get them to move elsewhere...because, after all, "wouldn't you?") They seem to be recovering fairly well, to my great surprise. Knock on wood.