@home : INbloom for May Day

The perennial garden is coming along slowly. I've been having trouble fulfilling the plant list given to me by the designer I hired last year. I finally called her in desperation to get some alternatives. I picked up two white hydrangeas and a Spirea japonica with red leaves this last weekend. They will be planted on the west (far) end of the garden. The helleborous and some of the other plants have been struggling under a load of aphids and other weird little bugs. We loosed about a thousand ladybugs here Friday morning as a natural predator against these small bugs. Our property is a pestcide free zone so you have to get creative with what battles you have to fight. This also explains why I tore out the roses last year - too difficult to grow without the aid of chemicals. She also found a source for the trees that will be planted across from each window. What we can afford is only about two feet tall ($25 each). The alternative is buying a much larger tree, which is often harder to transplant and survive. (They also cost $200 apiece and I just can't do that!)