This is my fourth spring in this garden. For three years I have been creating garden beds, but this year I have been editing them: rearranging the furniture, so to speak. I have been having a lot of fun. It is my art; it engages my creative juices, as I seek the most aesthetically pleasing [...]
campanula
Serendipity in July: Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day July 2014
July 16, 2014 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingWhen you let plants self-sow, as I discussed in my review of Plantiful, serendipitous things can happen in your garden that surprise and delight you.The poppies in the photo above are second year poppies. I scattered the seed of their parents over my flower bed, but I did nothing for the poppies you see here [...]
Adenophora and Its Evil Twin Revisited
November 17, 2009 – Posted in: MiscellaneousA while back I wrote an essay for Horticulture detailing my attempt to figure out the difference between ladybells and creeping bellflower, and I wrote up a blog post with additional information. Anne Larson, the Des Moines Gardening Examiner, has tracked down more information about these two plants, including how to determine if you really [...]
What a Garden Project in Progress Looks Like
July 10, 2008 – Posted in: Hardscaping and ProjectsOne of the things I did in June was tackle a part of the north border that had never been cultivated. I had dumped leaves there for several years, but otherwise whatever the birds planted that could tolerate shade was growing there: garlic mustard, aster, goldenrod, creeping bellflower, and jewelweed. My goal was nothing less [...]
Campanula rapunculoides, The Evil Twin
July 26, 2007 – Posted in: Native/Invasive, Plant infoI call creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) the evil twin because it looks just like ladybells, (Adenophora confusa), only it is aggressively spreading and ineradicable, and ladybells is well-behaved. So they say. I outline my futile attempts to figure out the actual differences between these two plants in an essay on the last page of the [...]
The Purple-and-Gold Bed
July 26, 2006 – Posted in: Plant info, What's up/bloomingOver fifteen years ago, my very first plant order had an error in it. I had ordered coral bells (Heuchera) and I was sent Heliopsis 'Summer Sun' instead. The mail order nursery very quickly remedied their mistake, sending me the coral bells and advising me to keep the false sunflower. Great, I thought, free plants. [...]
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