Spoon Garden

Day 228: You can't have too much of a good thing, not when you're talking about Spoon Flowers. I managed to score all three colours this year, and have planted them together in a 10-gallon pot set at the end of the raspberry row beside the birdbath. I can enjoy them from the living room window there, an advantage over having them in the flower bed closer to the house. I bought them as soon as Watson's set them out, a tricky proposition because I'm in the next Plant Hardiness Zone due to the difference in altitude. They had to be coaxed along indoors for a month before I could start hardening them off on the back porch. Once danger of killing frost had passed, I moved them to the pot. They're thriving in the "Spoon Bowl," gently fertilized by the Evening Grosbeaks and Spotted Towhees as they stand in line for a drink at the birdbath. Now there's a bit of gardening advice you won't find in any book!

Steering Toward Better Blooms

Day 226: Mother Nature had a substantial hand in bringing my flower garden into its best-ever display by providing several days of hard rain right after I'd laid down a thick layer of mixed compost and steer manure. I have to admit I've only made minor soil amendments in past years, and the application of fertilizer was instituted as a last-ditch effort to control the moss which was slowly taking over the flower beds. Almost overnight, I noticed a change in the color of the peonies' foliage, and within a week or ten days, the garden was lushly green. I am being rewarded with larger and more abundant blooms as well as fewer pests, a bonus which can be attributed to the better health of the plants overall. Three bucks! That's all it cost to bring my flowers into vibrant bloom. I should have done this years ago.