Contemplating Purple, Pink, and White

There's the root mass of an ancient crape myrtle in the backyard. I cut it to the ground shortly after moving in. It blooms pink, the color of bubble gum. It's the starting point for the Crape Myrtle bed. Last year's growth is now about 6' tall. Powdery Mildew attacks it every summer. Now that the oak tree is down, the increased sunlight should help.



In this bed, I have echinacea, both purple and white, veronica, purple and white, Russian sage, and a packet of cosmos seeds that will be sown in late April, pink and white. Along the back edge of the perennial bed, there are altheas, or Rose of Sharon, moved here from the front of a house in Winston-Salem several years ago. They'll be used to form an edge along the top of the broken concrete retaining wall at the gully. They bloom purple and white.



To make way for these shrubs, which need more light than I have allowed them in the perennial bed, I need to move my Snowball viburnum. Maybe that will be done today. Maybe tomorrow. I'm still trying to find a suitable location.



It's sunny and 30 degrees. We might reach 60 today.

12:04pm - I've been to Carla's to unload the stone she purchased last night. It was on the back of the truck. Then I went to the store to pick up the stone she gave me from the leftovers. It was another $10 deal for some edgers that were used in the store last summer. They don't match the house exactly, but the red will be fine of what I intend to use them for this year. Tomorrow, she'll come over in the morning to help me set them where I want them.

I also moved the Rose of Sharon shrubs.



The snowball viburnum found a new home along the edge of the woods near where I hang my hammock in the spring. It'll do for now. I also moved two pyracantha to the impromptu path along the dead oak tree trunk. A few years, they should fill in and block the rotting carcass. I had already moved the vitex to behind the swing.

It's 48 degrees. The tomato seedlings are getting their first taste of the outdoors. I've got them in the driveway, shaded by the truck. There's a light breeze which should help harden them off a bit. They've gotten leggy in their enclosed containers. I'm hoping to pot up the four Marseilles fig cuttings today. Maybe after I get back from the mountain.