Gardening is the new crack!

For me, one of the great pleasures of suburban living is gardening.  Living in a condo complex, we aren't allotted that much space to garden.  I am lucky that I live in community where you are permitted to "tastefully" tinker with the plants at both the front and back of your unit.  And since we live at the end of the complex, we are more or less granted carte blanche - an invitation to explore the exciting world of horticulture!

But even after two years I am a true novice gardener with the greenest of green thumbs.  I rarely plan ahead, and a trip to the nursery for me is like Supermarket Sweep - grabbing things off the shelves left and right.  I am just glad Peter hasn't asked to see my credit bill this month...gardening is not an inexpensive habit!

I recently discovered (thanks to my garden expert of a neighbor) an excellent nursery in Hawthorne called Rosedale - it is incredibly well stocked and they have an abundance of really beautiful plants.  Peanut and I ventured there for the first time about a month ago, and in the span of about 10 minutes I picked up 2 mountain laurels, a gorgeous azalea with bright red blossoms, a korean azalea with purple blooms, a climbing hydrangea, and 2 types of euonymus.  And besides some wrangling with Peanut (she wanted to pull the little red cart piled with plants - but couldn't get it to move), it was an incredible afternoon.

On a second trip, this time with Peter in tow to ensure I kept to a very strict budget, I scored lavender, vinca, and an assortment of annuals: purple salvia, celosia in pink and red and some lovely orange and yellow marigolds.  At the checkout, the clerks all recognized Peanut (I mean, it was our second...or third...visit), and Peter started to realize we might have a problem.  Once we got home I set to put everything in the ground.  I didn't really have a plan, and had to work around several hydrangeas we planted last season, a hosta, some catmint, and a forest of asiatic lilies that are just exploding all over.

So last weekend, I was a bit sad that besides weeding and mulching there really wasn't anything "exciting" to do in the front garden.  So when I ran out of mulch, I quietly grabbed my keys (and Peanut) and slipped off to the garden center near my house.  While it isn't Rosedale, it has a small selection of really beautiful plants - and before I knew it my cart was piled high with astilbe, buddleia, day lily, and these cute fragrant annuals with tiny petals.  Thankfully Peter didn't give me too much trouble (he just sort of shook his head and murmured something unintelligible under his breath). 

Of course, he hasn't see the flat of vinca atropurpurea I ordered online Monday morning...seriously, I need help!