I planted some stuff

perennials from the swap, mostly. In various edges of the yard, the yarrow, artemesia, spiderwort, strawberry begonia, blanket flower (with red/orange coleus moved next to it), ostrich ferns, and creeping jenny- divided into bits to make a little row of it. Some were looking very sad and I don't know if they'll make it- it rains tonight so I hope that helps. I was in too much of a hurry to take pictures, before a thunderstorm passed over. I did take clippings of the creeping jenny and put in a jar of tank water, see if they convert and root can plant some in the aquariums.

Also momentarily brought my fig trees in the house to repot- slightly larger- they barely gained an inch or two all round. These are the largest pots I have. Might be time to buy some nice very large planters for them.

purchase-

went to two of my favorite local nurseries today. Might visit the third tomorrow. Most glad to find an 'Alba' rosemary- different variety than those I've bought- and failed to bring thru the winter- before.

Also got several peppers, one stevia, one tarragon, 'wicked witch' coleus, and then I succumbed to the charm of some geraniums. They're not scented. But I got five kinds, ha.

Also got two new blanket flower plants (found out they only live two or three years, so no surprise mine didn't come up again), two persian shield plants (which I read about in a book on using tropicals in the landscape), and two pink salvias. Seen here on the floor in front. That's my crowd brought in from the cold at night.

Feels like a bigger crowd now, because I also did a lot of repotting when I got home- the plantman gave me some discarded four-inch pots. I pricked out of trays nasturtiums, fenugreek, basils, sesame (benne), thyme, and summer savory. But it still wasn't enough pots. A bunch of my marigolds looked stunted, the tomatoes and alyssum yellowish foliage. I think not so much due to crammed roots in the smaller paper pots, but poor soil- earlier in the season I bought some bagged potting soil from Target that was a brand I used to like. But it wasn't as I remembered- this stuff was very dry, smelled and felt like shredded wood. No hummus. I tried using it anyway but I think some of the plants have done poorly since. So I repotted the marigolds into plastic pots with new soil (better quality!) from today's nursery, and moved up the smaller, less-needy herbs into the vacated paper pots. Never done that before. 

The yellow-ish tomatoes just got a top dressing of the new soil. Should be the darker green color of the marigold far left (in my opinion). I think they'll do much better once in the ground- a few weeks to go still.

shifted salvia

Well today I dug and moved the black and blue salvia. Doesn't look like much, just some upright bare stems mostly- 

to the left of the steps (on the right is the cut back milkweed)

Now the lilac has its spot pretty much to itself- aside from two smaller salvias behind it still

I hope I judged its mature size accurately- it's nearly overlapping the stepping stone now

Nearby in that little strip alongside the driveway, one of the blanket flower seems to have died. The others have poufballs of seedheads.

planted

a week ago actually, but I'm only just now getting around to all the pictures. Beautyberry- between the base of the shady sideyard slope and the large holly shrub, against side of the house.

From the other side it's barely visible, but I hope it will grow out and arch over/through the railings, reaching onto the lower deck.

Oakleaf hydrangea to one side of the rear perennial bed-

I'm rather excited to have this plant. I hope it fills in a great blank space back there, and I love its foliage

not to mention the flowers will come. I fenced it against deer and rabbits-

I feel like it's already making a statement in the rear left of that bed

Just in front left of that main oak tree, I put the st. john's wort. 

Looks small now, but already I like its contrast against the hellebore.

View from other angle:

The wandflower went to the side near pannicle hydrangea, between smaller rue and the two jacob's ladder plants 

(all of them rather inconspicuous right now)

Up front I rather ruthlessly dug up all the echinacea that were next to my lilac- it was getting crowded

Also dug up the two hyssop here on the driveway edge- even though it's been doing splendid

I wanted to put these bright bold blanket flowers there instead

(there's still a few rudbeckia and marigold in between)

That meant moving the hyssop- and assuming it's part of the plant scent keeping rabbits from my garden, I figured to use it elsewhere. Replanted on top of the shady sideyard slope- in a curve around edge of the turtlehead patch and yellow salvia.

The two plants divided into four- one I pulled apart and the other broke when I was digging. 

Don't know how well they'll do here- probably not quite enough sun- but I wanted to try

Well now the lilac has all its space. Underneath it I've planted little plugs of bugleweed, but that's coming up.