planting stuff!

I had the best time this recent tuesday, but didn't get a chance to post about it yet. It was a mild, cloudy day with light rain all afternoon. I spent most of it outside, getting muddy and sticking plants into the ground in B yard. I found another avid gardener nearby who has the most beautiful yard full of ferns. She was thinning out the plants in her beds that were sprawling runners beyond their boundaries, and I bought four containers full of dug plants to put in here.

The ones I wanted most are called sensitive fern (hardy, regardless of their name), she gave me a few other fern types as well.

I planted these around the base of trees in the back.

This plant I've often heard of but never grown myself, its columbine.

This one is an ornamental, flowering japanese sage:

Tiny delicate seedlings of lenten rose (also called hellebores)- another plant I've never grown. She tells me that a two-year-old plant of this in a five-inch pot goes for $16 at the local store- so even if a few of these survive to maturity I'll be pleased.

That's not all. I also got free some forsythia starts- little plants formed when a stem bent to the ground and rooted itself. Once before I just stuck stem cuttings into the ground, and they failed. I think these have a better chance of taking hold.

Most of the stuff looks barren here, the earth bald, the unimproved soil heavy clay. After these pics I added thick mulch of half-done compost, will keep feeding the plants and cross my fingers for them. They're all supposed to be pretty tough, so good chances.