We Had A chance To Talk and Plants, Lots of Plants

Mother's Day was actually rather nice. We headed out to Gerten's Nursery early in the morning, and construction caused me to get lost only one time. We were still there relatively on time with plenty of carts available and minimal crowds. We did run into Chickie, ChickieMama and Chickie's brother Clarke a couple of times while we were roaming. We all wanted to choose plants for this year's garden. But basically we were on our own most of the time. 

These will grow and bush out quite a lot. He 
planted them in the mid-section so they had lots of 
room. Neither of us is super familiar with what 
they will look like when mature, so it will be 
a nice surprise watching them grow. 

We wanted plants for the lower terraced yard - the "castle walls" as I often refer to them. DH is in charge of gardening - I'm not enthralled by the process, just enjoy the results. We ended up with a cart full and Minion's hatch was well filled with boxes containing lovely greenery. 

This flat held a lot of the smaller plants that 
we got, as well as more fun things. Flowers 
should be adorning most of these in a few short 
weeks. Again, I'm looking forward to seeing 
what they look like when mature. I think most 
of these are annuals, although a lot of what 
we bought were perennials. 

Being in the car, in close quarters for more than 30 minutes each direction forced DH and I to talk a bit, and that helped clear the air between us somewhat. It wasn't perfect, but it was a start. I did mention the idea of counseling to him, but that got shot down immediately. He sees me as radically changing and says instead of randomly coming up with a "Why don't we stop over there for lunch" or whatever, now he has to think about whether his choice will work into my food plan. I told him that's on me, not on him. That almost anywhere he could take me, I'd find something I could eat. That's probably overly simplistic, but I'll be learning how to live within my food plan's lifestyle over the next two weeks, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. 

Here we have coleus, marigold, another 
tomato (determinate this time) and my 
lantana plants (three of those). Lantanas 
are my favorites, and since they're 
annuals, we have to buy them new every 
year. I just love their multi-colored blooms. 

When we got home, he changed clothes while I carried the plant boxes to the lower yard, then joined him while he arranged things. We raked quite a bit of the upper yard, getting rid of a rotted palette that had contained rocks and bricks we had used in wall construction. That part of the yard looks a lot better now. He also clued me in on where he's thinking about putting a fire pit. That's been on our "I want" agenda for quite a while. This year? Hard to say whether it will be that soon, but the plan sounded really good. 

The lighting was so nice, I thought I'd share this photo 
I took of our flowering crabapple tree and the upper 
yard full of ferns in the morning light. By mid-summer, 
you won't see the ground at all, it'll just be the leaves 
of the ferns - a sea of green. 

He then pulled out a bunch of tools and dirt from the shed and got to work. In mid-afternoon he settled down with a scotch on the rocks, while I had a shot of Tequila. He ended up with another drink later and I switched to dark rum. 

After some of the planting was finished you can see two of 
the larger plants in the center, ferns against the castle wall, 
and coleus and impatiens closer to the edge, at the 
flat wall top of the first level of stone. 

He got all of the plants planted except for four large ones that will go in on Tuesday, and that was a lot of work. Now it's up to them to grow, but I think they'll do well. He still needs to plant a couple of everbearing strawberries for me, as well as some miscellaneous green things for himself, but the yard already looks much brighter and happier. 

Here's one of my three Lantana plants. Each 
of the three I chose are a different color. I 
adore these plants and can't find them anywhere 
but out at Gertens, so it requires a long 
trip to get down and back. We don't go there 
on a whim. 

Our rocky personal relationship ground seems to be semi-solid once again, although who knows how long that will last. I'm pretty sure we'll work our way through this, and each of us will have to make some compromises. But I'm not giving up. I've got 40+ years into this and I'm as stubborn as they come - LOL. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Stay safe, be kind and please, wear your mask.