Quite Contrary?

A 'new' lavender plant - I'm hoping it will spread (along with some columbine seeds I threw down). It's in the front of the house under a cherry tree. Unfortunately the tree shades it quite a bit but it does get all day sun just the same!

The vegetable garden! Yes, those are peas and potatoes! The potatoes are in flower already and the peas are about a foot high. I know, I need to get some sort of support for them or soon they're just going to fall right over - if the bunnies don't get them first! Darn bunnies...

My lily. Isn't it beautiful??? I absolutely adore the flowers and it takes virtually no work. I put it in the ground and low and behold a week or two later those lovely white flowers popped up. *sigh* If only life were that easy. (By the way, I've left all the plant markers in the ground until the end of the season. I want to see what's going to take and what's not and then I'll make a note of what can be moved/ filled in or gets to stay.)

The shade garden and a NEW Patio set (hidden from view). My yew trees are pretty droopy but I'm hopeful that they'll come back. I've got tons of Lily of the Valley and a few ferns (that aren't going to make it I'm afraid). It truly is becoming a Garden Oasis (the name of the patio set and a nickname for the area -from my friend K. who's enjoyed it once or twice).

A neighbour gave me this Cedar. Thank you Ms. C!! However, if you have someone say to you, "Hey, I have this tree in my yard and you can have it all you have to do is...." WALK AWAY! They're probably going to tack a "dig it up" onto the end of that sentence and let me tell you digging something out of someone else's garden can be nerve wracking. Walk away. Pay $60.00 for a new Cedar from Home Depot and be happy with it. The story has a happy ending - really - I didn't wreck her garden, my archeology degree came in handy and I ever so carefully dug the roots out one, by one, with my fingers and a tiny shovel. Sad, sick and true...

My sad, sad Hostas. I'm also hopeful this will make it. He doesn't look happy does he? Poor thing. He was growing perfectly fine beside my garage and I rudely lifted him up and plopped him in the shade garden, in the corner. If he takes he'll have all the room he needs to grow big and full. If he doesn't I will have one really bare corner in my shade garden.

Who would have thought that I could put seeds in the ground, cover them with dirt and a few weeks later they would actually grow?? Not I, that's for darn sure! But contrary to what I thought and what I expected, the plants are getting bigger. Not all of them, but the majority. And I'm delighted, ecstatic, fascinated and a little in awe. I might just get something out of my garden yet - by something, I mean food and/or pretty flowers - it has already provided me with so much more...