The Beauty of Perennials

I finally got a chance to get back out into the yard and work on some of my gardening efforts from last year. As I was weeding some crabgrass out of the area on the side of the road where I'd planted an edging of Catnip and Hostas, I had to keep one eye out over my shoulder as cars fly up to this corner certainly paying no attention to any roadside gardeners.

During one quiet period when I was absorbed in cleaning up the unwanted crabgrass, I heard someone say something. I looked up and saw a woman walking by on the other side of the road. She was commenting on how lovely the flowers looked and asked if they were Lavender plants. Indeed the splays of light purple flowers that have blossomed on the Catnip do look pretty nice as they stretch out along the roadside. I explained to the admirer that, no, this was Catnip, and that I'd planted it there because I knew it would spread, as well as thrive, even in this lousy, sandy, side-of-the-road soil. I also said to her that, more importantly, I just want to cover all parts of our lawn with anything that grows well on its own, and therefore makes it less for me to have to mow! And, that was before all the talk about the price of gas going up, up, up! Now I've come to realize - for more reasons than just my sprawling catnip that I've become a perennial lover!

As she walked on, I thought back to my efforts of last summer working on the side of the road trying to make this patch of our property a little bit nicer to look at and provide us with an area that we wouldn't need to mow. I had to laugh at the number of times after all my days and hours of effort, I'd look out the window and see a car pulled over, tires crushing onto my bank of plants; or, last fall when the Town workers took down the big dying Maple from across the road and seemed to need to use our yard as their staging area...feet of the wood chipper planted firmly onto my bed of plants! The steady winter snows brought snowplow after snowplow down this road constantly pushing these heavy piles around, making me certain that my efforts with these plants was for naught. Even this spring Town workers from another department came to patch up the road at the corner, and apparently again needed this exact area to place their heavy paver while they spread new tar onto the road. Geesh, as if I hadn't placed these plants in tough conditions anyway...now all this!

But, inspite of all that rough mistreatment, my hardy Catnip and Hostas have survived, and are indeed thriving! I have to smile at the size of them, remembering I'd purchased the almost dying, dried out 6" plants for half-price and as I dug them in, shook my head with uncertainty while looking at the sandy soil that they were going into as I wished them, "Good Luck!"

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Now, I'm happy to say that the heartiest of them has spread to over two-feet in diameter and the bees are delighted to swarm around their delicate little purple flowers. And, along with drawing some compliments from passerbys, I now don't have to mow that whole 40' x 4' swath! As I look out at the rest of the yard I realize that now I'm going to have to get out there and put in some more perennials to add to its beauty and reduce my yard and mow-time even more!