Saturday, Sept 15th

A beautiful warm sunny day here today. Yesterday we took a trip to Dwight Nursery. It wasn't as large as I had at first thought, but there were plenty of plants to be looked at and some to be bought. Of course, most of the perennials and shrubs are on sale now so they can clear out the stock before winter comes.

A very helpful garden assistant was more than willing to chat about plants, fending off deer, growing invasive plants, we could have talked for hours.

She showed me some perennials with burgundy foliage and I told her I was not a particular fan of that colour. She understood completely and said that sometimes they help to make another plant "pop". Okay, I will let time tell on that one. They just don't appeal to me, too dark and sombre for my tastes. Perhaps too sophisticated too.

They had no climbing hydrangea which was a shame, just after I had read about how Martha Stewart plants them to grow up the trunks of trees on her estate. What a great idea!  I have a lot of maples here that would look great with a flowering vine growing up their trunks.

They did have a sweet autumn clematis though. And I scooped it up even though the helpful assistant told me that it was invasive. I said there was enough space that that was not a worry to me. And after checking out many images on google, I am going to plant this one right next to the clothes line pole and let it climb up that. I may have to put some other supports for it but those can wait until next spring. I really don't care if this is invasive and covers a lot of ground; that is what I am looking for, plants that leap for joy and grow everywhere. They can always be clipped back if they prove too energetic.

I also bought a Virginia Creeper. I had this for years in my garden in Halifax and it was lovely. My neighbour get the best of it though as the only sun came from the east so the leaves all faced her side of the fence. She got the lovely show of leaves while I got the back side. They turn a brilliant red in the fall and they grow quickly. So this will go next to the back deck on the west side. It is shaded from direct sun by the maple there, but it gets enough light to flourish and it will look great climbing up the deck and latching on to the lattice work there.

Another hydrangea, how could I resist this one? It is a lace cap called Wedding Gown. The ticket says that it will only grow 3 feet tall, but will be 3 to 5 feet wide, so a low spreading shrub. This one I will put somewhere in more sun than the others as this type can tolerate more sun. It is a macrophylla hydrangea and the blooms turn deep pink in the fall.

I read in a gardening book by Marjorie Harris that, when starting a new garden, you should put in the shrubs and climbers right away. They are the bones of a garden and should get the earliest start. With that in mind, I picked up a Hall's Honeysuckle which will have white/yellow flowers and black berries in the fall. This is going in the raised bed by the driveway closer to the front side of the house. It is the first plant to see when parking in the driveway. I have grown two honeysuckles in Halifax, but neither had a great location - not enough sun, in my opinion - they grew and produced flowers but not abundantly. I have seen honeysuckles that are just loaded with flowers and I hope that this one will succeed like those. I will put in a trellis against the wall next spring once it gets going and needs support to climb up that wall.

I bought a single aster, how stupid is that?  I should have bought three and put them together. When will I learn?  I will pop this into the bed beside the driveway where I am going to be planting many of the perennials that I ordered from Vesey's (irises, peonies).

I picked up a tall Shasta daisy perennial and will put this together with the Annabelle hydrangea that I got at Home Hardware on Friday. These will go in the back garden off to one side. This is a spot that gets a fair amount of sun and, if the grass is anything to go by, the soil there must be good. The grass there is lush and green compared to the rest of the yard which is rather seedy. This was where a previous owner had his vegetable garden so the soil here may have been improved by him so I can now benefit from it.

Pictures to follow in the next post.