COMPETITIVE GARDENING

Home from New York and really getting down to working in the yard. While we were gone Lynda really added value to the corner garden and it now looks really uptown.  She and John also moved some plants around on the backyard , some of them we just planted before we left, but we're getting too much sun.  Many things that can stand a lot of sun are still stressed in our yard because it gets like an oven back there    I spent three hours, or did it just seem like it, moving bricks and arranging them like a crazy quilt underneath the back porch.  I'm so tired you could put my picture in the dictionary under exhausted.  

How those pioneer women workedin the fields, came home and gave birth and then cooked dinner for seven people, from scratch, is totally beyond me.   We went out for dinner. 

I wrote this day before yesterday, but today we took a girl's trip to High Hand Nursery in Rocklin. I'd never been there before, and it's really a treat. This foursome is all working on our garden to make it absolutely wonderful for the home tour. It takes a village. And of course, we're all into making it the best garden in the neighborhood. Among other things, we are going to take the fountain out, which will leave us with several useful pots, one of them enormous, and a small brick pedestal in the back yard that should be taken out, but might not be. The following pictures are of various glass, ceramic, and real plants that might be used if we have to leave this giant pot where it is. Anna found a really neat plant and got her wings as well. So many plants, so little space to plant them. We discovered our neighbor had bought a really nice Japanese maple. She has her house on the tour, too. The competition increases.

Now, the other thing that's available at High Hand Nursery is that it's a great place to have lunch. The food is good enough, though not spectacular, but the ambiance is wonderful, and dessert is to die for. We had a coconut cake with hibiscus sauce and hibiscus flower, and a cream cheese brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce. If you've enjoyed the competitive gardening story, you might like M.C. Beaton's book Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener.