Mmmmmmmmmmm….I’m in love (again).

Well, my crushes are coming fast and furious. First it was the daffodils then the redbud and mock orange, not to mention the irises, daisies, peony, and petunias. Being a Poor Person of Considerable Poverty ™, it is damned inconvenient to have this kind of energy for – and commitment to – the garden without enough money to do it right. I’m making do with annuals, for the most part, and some seed.

The latest crush is the dahlia. I am just knocked out by this beauty. She’s not in the ground yet due to the monsoon season that is upon us.

wave petunias

I go to the hardware store for something like a bag of potting soil and come home with a car full of plants. I’ve indulged in lobelia, gerbera daisies, petunias, dusty miller,  moss roses, a rose bush, clematis, stuff I don’t know the name of, and some kick-ass geraniums. I’ve never been much fond of geraniums, but those floral geneticists are getting pretty good with them.  They’re much more aesthetically pleasing these days.

I completely lost all sense of fiscal responsibility and came home with wisteria on Monday. The blooms have come and gone, but next year – oh my, next year!

retaining wall bed

Against all odds and contrary to my personal history, I’ve managed to get both morning glory and moonflower seeds to germinate. I’m hesitant to take things for granted given that I’ve had no luck with either for 20 years, but I will be much pleased if they do grow and thrive.

Trudy, the little brat, is still digging up my one bed. There must be chipmunks nesting near by. We are getting ready to come to blows if she doesn’t begin seeing things my way.

I didn’t get around to planting anything until Monday, other than some hostas and lily-of-the-valley, due to bed preparation. On Saturday and Sunday, I broke ground in some of the nastiest hard clay and gravel any of y’all have ever seen. Monday morning, I ripped out the carpet roses and sloppily put them in a shady bed I won’t get to filling until next year. At this stage, I don’t care if they die. I de-leafed, cleaned up debris, washed the lawn furniture, and evicted some of the wasp nests.

Bone weary, I was.

Those of us around here know that there have been waves of downpours. Having lived in the tropics, I know a monsoon when I see one. Truly, it’s been amazing. Having done all that work, I was determined to get stuff in the ground.

I’ve been gardening in the rain. As I sit here typing this, I have mud-splattered arms, oak pollen in my hair, and my jeans aren’t even recognizable as denim. I’m filthy and very happy.

Still, I have toted timbers in the rain, I have dragged 10 bags of topsoil out of my car in the rain, I planted a flat of begonias and another of petunias and yet another of lobelia in the rain.

garden gate

I filled baskets with moss roses in the rain and have two to go, plus I got some that were already filled. I hung humming bird feeders and Boston ferns in the rain. I put down grass seed. I planted two creeping junipers in the rain.  And I have daisies, Siberian irises, balloon flowers, columbine, wild delphinium, ivy and vinca to transplant. Besides all that, I have pots of this and that to get in the ground after I level the landscape timbers. This rain needs to stop – there’s only so much I can do in rain storms so fierce I’m soaked to the skin in seconds. Naked gardening can be fun, but it’s not quite warm enough for that – yet.

wild delphinium

After 4 years of back breaking work punctuated by months of inertia, my dream of a white garden (with punches of blue and purple) is being realized. Having viewed planning as anathema for most of my life, I’m starting to see the merits. If you have goals and plan them out, it feels pretty damn good when they begin to unfold. (It also makes decisions at the nursery easier.) There’s still a lot to do.

The white garden will be years in the making.

In other news, the cottage garden is as yet untouched. I’m hoping to be finished with this year’s stuff for the white garden by this weekend – at which time, I will be begin ripping out wild rose, honeysuckle, oak saplings, bind weed, and the what-was-I-thinking loosestrife.

I hope this passion continues to burn. Gardening used to be my bliss, my therapist, my hobby, and my exercise. I’m not sure why I got so completely away from it, but I did. (And I’m paying for those years of neglect in so many different ways.)

2009 Gardenpalooza is underway. Woo Hoo!

[Note:  Garden Rant, Sustainable Gardening and The Gardener Guy are three of my favorite gardening sites.  If you check them out, be prepared to lose a lot of time.]