It had to happen sooner or later. To be honest, I'm quite amazed we lasted this long. We were out running errands, getting supplies to repair the leaky faucets supplying the clothes washer, when we entered Home Depot through the garden center. I just wanted to look at trees, to get an idea of how big certain things would get (the spread of different varieties of Colorado blue spruce, specifically, to see how much yard I will have to dedicate to it). We wandered through a little, also looking at weeping willows, weeping birch, and weeping cherry. They all had their charms, but thankfully we were in my little car, and no trees came home with us today. But that is not to say we came home entirely without plants. Once the seed was planted, so to speak, we couldn't help but to stop by a locally owned nursery a few blocks down from where we were buying our plumbing supplies. It was the first time we visited it, so we were quite surprised to learn it was as large and jam-packed as it was. Also, I was impressed with the prices on perennials, which turned out to be a good thing. We went there "to price trees," but within two minutes I said to Mr S-P, "Should we..." and he finished with, "get a cart?" There was no stopping us after that. And I mean that quite literally. Even after we filled up, said, "We need to get out of here now, before we add more," both of us kept stopping by new displays, adding just one or two more things. Even as the girl was writing our ticket to take to the cashier, three times one of us changed the totals for her. We kept quoting our younger daughter, whose teenage response to my demands that she stop adding art to her overly-full walls every time I'd catch her putting up more, was always, "It's just theeeese."
The house came with lots of established plants. The sunflowers are trying to take over the back quarter of the yard, there are raspberries in abundance, and we inherited sage, basil, strawberries, kale, and tomatoes as well. But the front bed only had the little mound of petunias and verbena that the seller's agent planted the day before the open house, that had managed to survive but only just. I've been collecting onesie-twosie plants for a couple weeks. I had that fragrant orange miniature rose and some ice plant I got the first week, and a few days ago I picked up some Shasta daisies and echinacea. Today we bought more plants than I cared to count, and I think all were perennials. I got some standards, like dianthus and lavender, some plants I haven't had for twenty years, like yarrow and black-eyed susans, and things I have never tried before, like lupines. There are two different varieties of delphinium that I'm excited to see bloom (the late summer buds are ready to go), and we picked out at least two varieties of Mr S-P's favorite flower, columbines. We each found flowers to attract hummingbirds, mine a little ground cover type, and his a tall bush. I hope at least one works. I know the car smelled amazing on the way home. Perhaps that will translate into more wildlife visible from my new favorite spot to have coffee in the mornings, right next to the giant picture window that faces east.
I'll let you know when we finally break down and get those trees. I've been told I have to wait at least until September.
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