This is the time of year when my gardening skills start to falter.  I’m an inept horticulturist who really desires to be ept, but somehow can’t find the correct formula to create the sumptuous gardens that my sisters Laurie and Mary are known for.

Mary has given me books on flowers and landscaping, and Laurie has offered cuttings from her plants, but I just don’t have their green thumbs. 

I try to stick to the basics. I opt for perennials and the hardier they are, the more I love them.  I have phlox, balloon flowers, sedum, Russian sage, primroses, and lamb’s ears in my front garden. I also have irises (both bearded and Siberian), cranesbill, and a ton of Spanish bluebell that came from somewhere (I suspect that birds did this) and spread like crazy. These plants are my old faithfuls that come up every year.

I also have several clematis vines climbing up my lamp pole out front, and some asters nearby. It’s a pretty full garden, but it takes some time to clear out the spent plants and make sure everything gets watered, weeded, and sprayed with insecticide when leaves start to disappear. That’s where I get sidetracked and overwhelmed, though I would dearly love to be whelmed.

But at least so far this year, I’ve been staying on top of things. There’s still grass peeking out here and there, but I’m trying to keep up as best I can.

The trouble is, I have gardens all around the house and along the forest line in the back. I have spent lots of money trying to keep the poison ivy at bay, but it still sprouts up here and there every year.  And the major mistake I made in the back was planting pachysandra.  That takes over everything and I’ve been trying to keep it from overpowering my hydrangeas.

I’m not big on pulling out perfectly good plants, but the pachysandra is really trying my patience! Luckily, my Lenten roses can hold their own against this aggressive ground cover, but some plants have been overwhelmed.

Ah, gardening. It teaches me patience, it gives me beauty, and it gets me outdoors. I make a lot of errors, and there’s always more to learn.  My gardens may not be showstoppers, but at least I’m giving it the old college try.