The Church of What's Happening Now: Late Bloomer

This is not my yard. But it is generally what I expect my yard to look like whenever the weather is nice enough for me to be outside.

This is the part of summer where my yard goes from competent to downer. We have hundreds of bulbs in early spring. And, if I do say so myself, we are killing it in late spring--hedge of peonies, patches of irises, clematis, poppies.....When those are done, we inherited enough lilies to keep things interesting. Until now, when it turns to death valley. Because by this point I've also forgotten to water all my containers.

It could be worse. We started addressing the death valley problem in the back yard last summer and added a few later bloomers......those pinkish purple things (echinacea) and the alien flowers about to bloom in front of them (seedum) an the blue/purple low ones in the back (balloon flowers). I assume this is a common problem. Everyone is all excited that winter is over and rushes to the nurseries and garden centers, and those places only sell plants currently in-bloom. Also, as you can see late bloomers are less than inspiring. I have to fill in the rest of the bed with some more late bloomers, and something low to edge it with....

I have these adorable shamrock weeds, which are doing great right now (of course). They have little tiny yellow flowers, and are pretty tall. I've already granted them citizenship by the garage, and I'm considering letting them fill in around the edges although they don't seem to spread the same way in the other beds.

But since I hate gardening and only want a nice garden in which to entertain or read magazines, I'm looking into non-plants, like the orb above (from Target 2 years ago). Case in point, a more striking trellis would be useful for the 11 months the clematis is not blooming. And since my #1 goal is no dirt, some concrete spheres may be in my future.

via

Notice that big bare spot in my flower bed? I'm currently battling some mint, and I think I've won the war. For a long time, I wanted to fill that spot with a large cement triceratops--there used to be one at a weird statuary place across from the outlet mall in Edinburgh. I always thought that could be chicly eccentric and the kids would enjoy it. But it was 800 lbs and even more dollars. Yes, I called.

When it comes to statuary, at my budget, there is a fine line between good and looking like a cat lady who sells tie-dye shit at art fairs. Tip: if it's made from an empty wine bottle, there is, at best, a 1 in 10 chance it isn't ridiculous. So let't study those well above my budget for guidance....I think that the key lies in leaning towards surrealism.