Me: I ordered five gallon-sized Juncus but there's only three here.
Him: Just take more of the pint-sized plants instead.
Me: But don't those plants belong to someone else?
Him:
Me: So it's just anarchy at this point?
Him: (smiles)
In their defense this was the biggest sale they've ever had, with over 4000 plants ordered. That's a LOT of natives to keep track of. I ordered a combination of soft rush (Juncus effusus) and tufted hair grass (Deschampsia cespitosa) and a few penstemon and stream violets to round things out. I also ordered kinnikinnick for the drier edges, which will hopefully cover the berm after a few years.
I hindsight I wish I had ordered a vine maple and incorporated some ferns but who am I kidding? I'm going to end up digging up and rearranging half of these anyway. It's what gardeners do, even gardeners who really know what they're doing. Greg raked up the leaves from the dogwood in the front yard and I deposited them into the beds around the yard as mulch. I don't have compost bins built yet but I couldn't bear to give up my leaves to the city compost. They'll just have to compost in place and I'll have to deal with the fact that I'm now a hoarder of leaves, in addition to everything else.
I ran out of fine bark mulch for the rain garden but once I get that covering everything this baby will be DONE. And then I've promised Greg I'm done with garden projects until next spring.
And I think I actually mean it.
I was supposed to get some Oregon Iris, too and some Red Columbine. Guess I just need to look at it as a work in progress. :)
ReplyDeleteLooking good! LOL at the hippies running things. The native plant sale at our Arboretum every year is always a mess. They post a massive list of natives on their website but when you show up at 7am they only have 1/3rd of the stuff they said they would and all of the unique stuff you want was taken by the first couple people...or maybe it's the people putting together the show that take all of the good stuff. It's just not worth the hassle! I can get natives from so many other sales and for free from other garden club members.
ReplyDeleteOh no, that sucks! I didn't get my Oregon Iris but they had everything else I ordered. I kept telling Greg that I should volunteer to help at those sales because a few Type-A bitches would make the whole thing run more smoothly. What flowering plants are you missing? If we have any in our yard we can create some volunteers for you . . .
ReplyDeleteI will totally help when and if you want to do it! You can direct me and the architect where to dig while you eat grapes or something. I spent about $100 on plants for the rain garden so I think it would be pretty expensive if you bought the plants from a non-wholesale nursery.
ReplyDeleteYour rain garden looks so awesome! I am officially jealous & feeling like maybe I can dig a hole. Although since I missed the plant boat, maybe I should just wait at this point?
ReplyDeleteHA! I cracked up at your comment about letting the hippies run things... They didn't even have half of my order, claimed to have sent me an email on Friday saying such (which I never got), and it was pretty much just chaos with no parking. I was glad Brett was with me, so he could just man the car, while I stood and waited and waited to get the few plants they had left (of course, it was all the flowering plants they were out of. My garden's going to look very colorless come Spring.)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see the rain garden in action! It looks lovely.
I don't see how anyone can look at your yard and think you don't have it together. And that post made me feel so much better because I did the same thing with a shrub in my yard, except I ultimately relegated it to a pot and then killed it.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I got the rain garden in this fall (barring any issues we might have from miscalculations). If everything works as planned I'd like to get the rain garden for the front yard dug out in the spring. I'm much less intimidated now that I've got one under my belt!
Yes I actually clicked on the link, excited to read about a gardener who had it together but still moved plants around. Such a funny thought to imagine that anyone might think I know what I'm doing!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you handled the plant mix up well, I doubt I could have been so cool. My husband is still embarrassed for me over the iced coffee vs hot coffee mix up when we were on vacation. When I order an ICED mocha that's what I want! When you ordered a gallon-sized Juncus that's what you expected....and wanted. Anyway the rain garden is looking great, aren't you glad you went for it?