I did some shopping yesterday, to try to fill in some holes in the front yard while the weather is still forgiving. Above, Four Nerve Daisies, which I read about on the Plano Prarie Garden blog. I had to drive out to Weston Gardens to get them, which was no great hardship, since yesterday was such a lovely day. It was nice to wander through their demonstration gardens while I was there, to see what was blooming. I also bought the Butterfly Weed at left, to take the place of the rosemary that looks like it’s dying. I decided I could afford to plant something a little taller in its place, since that area of the yard is mostly rounded bushes circling the two-foot wooden planter box. I’m a little nervous about this plant after reading about it, because it self-seeds quite easily, but I read all about the seed pods at Dave’s Garden, and I think I can just deadhead the pods before they open to avoid too much wayward growth.
I also solved a problem by purchasing this Gulf Stream Nandina. I’ve been pondering what to plant to hide the hose house, which is ugly tan plastic. I wanted something that could go in front of it, to hide it, but whatever that is will take a bit of a beating from the hose being pulled past it. This is also an area that gets little sun. It’s edged by the front porch, so I needed something that would grow relatively straight up, without too much spreading. The answer was right on the other side of the path—I have three of these planted there, and they’re happy as clams. I’ve cropped those three regularly to make them bushy, but I can just let this one grow straight up by not topping it.
I bought the nandina at Lowe’s, where I’ve had good luck purchasing basics in the past. Naturally, I’m on my own whenever I shop there, since the folks working in the garden center have no clue about gardening. Lowe’s let me down yesterday with a little bait and switch scam:
In the garden center was a whole table of 3-gallon nandinas, in several varieties. There were six signs on this table, each showing a different variety of nandina in 3-gallon pots for $16.98. In addition, about 90% of the pots had $16.98 on them. Naturally, the one I chose didn’t have a price—and when I got to the register, it rang up at $24.98. WTF? I asked the cashier, and he didn’t know why, so he called another garden center dude over, who said he’d run back and check the price. I went with him, and pointed out the signs, and the prices on the pots. He called Debbie, who appeared to be in charge of the garden center, and she started in with “well, not all the nandinas are the same price”, to which I replied by pointing out all the signs, and the serious lack of any other price. She blamed her vendors, for removing signs and putting plants in the wrong place, but I really didn’t care who was to blame—I just wanted my plant at the posted price. We went back and forth about this, and I just flat out told her I didn’t want to pay $24.98. Finally, she said “I’ll give it to you at $16.98, but don’t come back here tomorrow expecting to buy more at that price, because I won’t sell them to you.” Seriously? Don’t come back here tomorrow? I doubt I’ll be buying much for the garden at Lowe’s this year!
On today’s project list: more brick edging, and more decomposed granite. Oh, and tying up the scrub branches I trimmed from bad neighbor’s fenceline. I feel a few gallons of brush killer coming soon, because I’m pretty sick of having to hack back the nasty stuff growing over there twice a year.
