More Random Garden Pictures

If you've ever emailed with me you will appreciate that THIS is Saponaria! I bought a single plant of this about 20 years ago for my second ever garden as a teen. It has beautiful pale pink sweet smelling delicate flowers when it blooms. It has an extremely high level of saponins and has been used as a soap since the Renaissance. I've never actually tried out it's cleaning ability.

This is a bed off the back of the kitchen. That's a fig tree straight ahead. The saponaria is off to the left of it. I planted four rows of Dakota Black Popcorn in here as well as We Be Little Pumpkin with the corn. We grew some corn and pumpkins here a few years ago and they did great.

That's a camellia there in the middle that is just obstinate and refuses to apply herself. There are some annuals from the nursery in the front and the bushy stuff on the right is Bee Balm. Against the wall are some Four O'Clocks that can't be killed. I really do like weedy flowering perennials. It's nice to have something that insists on doing well no matter how much you neglect it. Those Four O'Clocks were something I started from seed nearly 20 years ago as well and I transplanted some along with the Saponaria from my parents. And you can't see it but next to the Bee Balm are our back steps and I yanked out some Bee Balm and tossed in some Morning Glory seeds to climb the railing of the steps.

And this is a little bed I hope will be nice one day. It's under my bedroom window. It has some daffodils and narcissus in it. I've tossed in some extra annuals and have planted some annual seeds to help fill in. There also a few perennials I started from seed. I'll need to keep adding more to fill it in eventually. Hollyhocks are next on the list to be transplanted there. I also have some Love Lies Bleeding seedlings that might find a home there. Around that corner is my former herb garden and home to a nightmare of poison ivy....waiting to be killed. It really mars the appearance of the back of the house. That and the giant above ground pool you can catch a glimpse of the in the upper left hand corner of this picture. But unlike the poison ivy it's a lot of fun for the children.

And this is my sad sorry attempt at asparagus below. All I can say is that it's alive and the bed is nearly weed free. I've added lots of manure when I first planted and last fall. I've kept it mulched. But this spring, it's 2nd year, each crown sent up no more than one or two shoots with the exception of one plant. It might be excellent given another 20 years.