the remaking of a kitchen

for the past few days don and i have worked like navvies in the gardens. it has been hot, so we have been sweaty dirty messes at the end of the day. i dug up and re-planted some hostas given to me by mary alyce many many moons ago. she dug them up from her former garden when she was replacing them with a better variety. this one clump has served as the extras....i have borrowed from it many times to plant in a new area. this time i was planting around the large tree that borders and shades our hosta glade at its north end. while i was doing this, don was weeding and digging about in the same garden under the autumn blaze maple....it really needed some attention. i was pointing out the few things worth saving in the whole mess. i have not let a black-eyed susan bloom in years, and there must have been fifty plants in that garden....which will not be blooming this year either! :)
don and i......mostly don dug all the weeds and grass out of the former home of the stellas in front of the house, and we amended the soil with peat moss. it was so dry, and dead looking it was like gray-black dust. i dug up the moonbeam coreopsis i'd planted last fall in front of the arborvitae at the southwest corner of the house and split and planted it at the back of the bed. the reason i moved it is that it didn't get enough sun in its former spot. i then planted some pink petunias and volunteer moss roses and snapdragons to fill the rest. i use the term fill lightly. hopefully they will live and expand a bit. behind this bed i amended the soil a bit and planted some of the stellas there. it will look pretty if we can keep it alive long enough to fill in. brian has promised some seeds from some pink flowers in his garden that will reside behind the stellas. color at last!