A Milestone

Yesterday I went out in the cool of a lovely June morning and did an hour and half of real gardening. 

I toted pots, unpotted them, dug holes, scrabbled around in the dirt, made a mess, trimmed the rootballs and planted, then moved them over a couple inches. . .  because. 

Schlepped the hose, watered. 

Cleaned up, dumped the debris, spread what little bit of mulch around that I could steal from other plants.

Just like my old style gardening in years past, except in a CAM boot and using a kneeler. 

It was a milestone in my long recovery. My foot was fine, no issues.

What did I plant? Since last winter when I created the new bed along the fence, tying the birdbath and the potting bench curve together (after I took out the juniper), I have been planning what to put in there.

I had big pots of Black Adder agastache and Windwalker Red salvia that had served to fill in my prairie pot garden by the deck last summer. I loved the look, a little wild and weedy, but still.

I decided to unpot both and put them against the fence in the new space. (I'll have to come up with something else for the corner by the deck next year.)

There will be more plants to extend the bed to the right -- a Rocky Mountain penstemon, a dwarf goldenrod, some other things. I want to make sure I fill this area and that the plants actually touch.

Like this:

So I planted them too close and hope the purple and red will mingle like they did in the pots placed close together by the deck. 

The agastache should spread out about 2 feet -- that's not much and mine won't get that big. The Windwalker Red salvia will get bigger, almost 4 feet across and just as tall, a very big plant.

But it probably won't, the vine's roots and my general experience tells me it will be constrained.

But I do want them tight together, mingling their flower spikes. I'm so tired of planting things for eventual size and watching them shrink and remain isolated blobs. 

These two plants and the birdhouse above are what I see straight out the slider as I enter my bedroom. I want a show.

There they are just out of the pots and transplanted side by side. They don't look too bad despite an afternoon that turned hot and windy.

And I don't look too bad for my first major foray out into the garden doing real work after months of recovery.

I did it.  I now have so much more I want to do, but . . . caution and prudence and just a few simple tasks at a time are called for. I'm still not 100% on my foot and won't be til mid summer or later. But boy, do I have plans now.