survivors and a transplant

[OT from cottage renovations]

as an austerity measure I didn't put in any annuals this year. 
begonias, fuchsias and impatiens are normally part of the scene here, brightening beds, hanging baskets and window boxes and serving with equal importance to attract hummingbirds and to boost my own spirits. 

I didn't want to have to forego them completely .... 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Bittersweet Cottage garden

one approach I took was to overwinter some fuchsias and snapdragons from last year.  they did just fine in the kitchen's S  window and I set some of the former out back, using as a planter the stump of the mulberry that came down in the 1999 ice storm.  this would have been an excellent idea except that I uncautiously planted them in early April.  they were killed by a cold snap and snow. 

even through I had the snapdragons ready to go in their place, I just couldn't bring myself to do it and so they sat, looking deader and sadder every time I went past them (which wasn't often: only rarely do I use the back door for anything other than the weekly setting out of trash and recycling for municipal collection). 

Fuchsia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt'

weeks turned into months but then I recently noted with considerable astonishment that new growth was working its way past the dead branches.  there aren't any blooms yet but there's plenty of season left and even if that doesn't find a way to happen the resurgence is still quite pleasing. 

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Phlox divaricata

another avenue was that of transplantation.  I collected this Sweet William in February from the CSX right of way in Waycross GA and hand carried it back on Amtrak along with some Spanish Moss that now lives under the skylight in the  conservatory  bathroom.  I was  more careful  less foolish with it, waiting until much later in the season to place it outside where it is coming along quite nicely. 

checklist

[OT from cottage renovations]

any time I'm heading out for a walk or errand around the Grove or its environs I just about never leave without bringing along a camera.  there are Grovers who probably wonder whether it would have to be surgically removed and I would probably agree with them.  assuming, of course, there were a reason to do without it ...

this time of year the other essential item is a selection of hand tools for incidental wayside gardening.  our parks and the verges of the walkways are under a constant attack from invasives: ivy (both poison and English) and wisteria on the trees, and in any crevices or other spots the tractor mowing can't reach there spring forth masses of garlic mustard, ailanthus, multiflora rose, barberry, honeysuckle and wineberry. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Jackson Park

here are some of the latter:

Rubus phoenicolasius

one is moved to ask: "are there enough spines on this?  couldn't there have been a way to accommodate a few more?" 

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I'll need to recover a bit more use of shoulder to get back to pickaxe and heavy loppers, essential for dealing with honeysuckle and its ilk.  but even without them there's plenty to be done with lesser tools, so much so that some days I come back without any images. 

if only there were more to show for my efforts.  often I can't see any visible difference.  but there's no point in giving up, not even against the inevitable; if I didn't do anything at all, surely it would be that much worse.