stuff that's not hosta

I’m in a funk, have been for a while. This time of year I’m normally a non-stop yard machine, weeding, digging, moving plants, more weeding. Engaged in all the stuff that brings me joy. Yeah, even weeding brings me joy. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I walk the yard every day, weeding and taking pictures. I still have a “to do” list that gets longer every day, but something is missing. Duh! Pat’s what missing. My gardening partner, the one who gives my gardening meaning (nice way of saying she tells me what to do, huh.) is missing. She is nowhere to be found. How can I garden like this? There is no one who can look at the garden and tell me what to do like Pat.

Pat’s not really missing. She is ensconced upstairs studying for a statistics final. Doesn’t the professor realize that there is gardening to do? We have 55 containers to plant and a veggie garden to plant.

With all the April and May rain, we’ve got stuff growing all over. The yard looks so green and peaceful I could fall asleep in any of the chairs we have outside. But the rain also was good to the weeds. Now I know that one person’s weed is another’s cherished plant. If that idiom is really true, I’d like to find those guys and trade out plants. This is what I really need Pat for. She is Nero to everything in the garden. If a plant has a pretty flower or an interesting leaf, I’ll let it stay. It probably stems from the time at our first house where I weeded all her annuals. Well I was young and not so smart.

Contrary to what some friends and relatives think, we do have more than hosta in the back yard. Now it’s hard to take a picture without some hosta in the background so try to ignore them. Wow, I can actually identify some of the plants. We have solomon's seal, lily of the valley, azeleas, chives, brunerra and marsh marigold.

I donno.

I donno.

Once again, I donno. This is why I miss Pat.

This marsh marigold is one year old. It was no larger than the little guy on the left. It seems to self seed like crazy so we could probably just wait a couple years till it reaches critical mass. Or we could go out and get 2 or 3 more.

We have strawberries on the far side of the berm as a ground cover. The wind or birds started this one 30 feet away.