i'm a pretend gardener

i like gardening. in little bits. little, sprinkle-some-seeds, maybe plant a flat or two kinda way. i'll plant flowers in the spring. i'll water things. that's about it. here's none of that starting things indoors, staking tomatoes, keeping tender young plants warm during a frost kind of thing. but hey, at least i know my weaknesses, even if i do have to buy my tomatoes at the store.

last year, i planted petunias in my front garden. this year, i planted seeds. one step up in the difficultly level, not so much because of the actual difficulty of planting the seeds (difficulty level: not difficult), but because of the patience required before they actually show up.

i have a very small front garden. it's the patch of dirt between the sidewalk leading to my house and the sidewalk leading to the attached twin. it's maybe, mmm, 10' x 5'. thereabouts. it's mostly planted with perennial type stuff that was there long before i moved in: two rose bushes (that i chopped off about a month ago, and which are bushing out nicely), a couple of tigerlilies, some clumps of irises, a teeny patch of blue salvia, and a whole lot of low groundcover stuff with little purple flowers in the early spring. none of it appears to be planned. anyway, there are a few patches of dirt (by which i mean clover and dandelion). last year, that's where i planted the petunias.

this year i planted: persian carpet zinnias in the back (they're tall), and blue mink ageratum and white alyssum in the front.

i've got some lemondrop marigolds and cambridge blue lobelia to put in the other bed (to the right of the sidewalk) after the pansies that are currently there die from the heat. all these flowers are pretty run-of-the-mill, but they're pretty. and i wanted a yellow/blue/white garden this year. those haven't been planted yet, though, because the pansies are still going strong.

so that's all. planted some seeds. maybe i'll try to remember to take a before and after shot, so you can see this little patch of garden i work with.

okay, i've added pictures of my garden now. click here. if you have any idea what the mystery ground cover or the myster spikey stuff is, i'd love to know.