Perennial smorgasbord

The email started off innocent enough ...

"Special Gardening Request!"

"Good day to you and Happy Spring to all my gardening friends! I have a first time home buyer who just moved into their new home ... It came complete with " a whole lot of perennials and ornamental plants. They have asked me to pass along the word that they would love some gardeners who could and would remove the perennials to a new home - Could this be YOU?"

Yes, it was me!

It took me, oh I don't know, maybe two minutes, to respond back to the realtor who sent this out to a mass list of area gardeners. (How she got my name is still beyond me). But nonetheless, within minutes I was in contact with the homeowner and I had set a date to come over with Mommy's Little Helper, gloves and shovel. I was psyched!

I had no idea what the house would behold but I can tell you it was overwhelming and overgrown. The previous homeowner was quite ambitious in both the front and backyards - even boasting a small pond that used to be stocked with fish. The new homeowners, just young kids, have no interest in gardening and really want to have a yard for a future family and a dog. I don't blame them ...

But where to start?! There were irises, tiger lilies, tulips, lambs ear, daylilies and chives everywhere. And groundcover, oy! ..... Half of which I had no idea what it was.

It was hard to know what to choose as a lot of things weren't in bloom ... I had to pick and choose based upon foliage which isn't always easy to do. Some of the ground cover was so thick that I couldn't even dig up some things that I wanted - which included Johnson's Blue geranium, hyacinth and dianthus. I was bummed.

I loved this look of wild phlox and pink tulips. I took some of the phlox but it didn't take the transplant very well. And boy, did this stuff SPREAD. They had it in every area of the garden. Probably not a good choice to put in my garden after all ....

But we dug, and dug, and brought home some beauties: overdam and blue fescue grasses, yellow and purple iris, this really cool groundcover (ajuga) that seemed non-invasive, and what I think to be neon sedum. My good friend and I will go back this weekend to dig more out and plant at the school. (see previous post)

At the end of the day, I was very grateful for the offer to take what I wanted, even though my planting space at home is getting smaller. I brought home some smart additions to the garden that are sure to be blooming for years to come.