A Little Gardening Interlude

While Marley's Birthday Party was going on Saturday, and to watch over the cats playing in the fenced back yard, I took advantage of the time to pull weeds from a section of the flowerbed where the old perennials had about died out (Veronica and Dianthus, both of which have always just limped along here).

I pulled the tops of all the weeds carefully, looking for existing good plants,

 but there weren't any.  Then I used a spade to shove along about an inch below ground, cutting the roots.  Then I dug 6 inches deep and turned the soil over to get at the deeper roots.

That left clumps of hard (but good) soil with some weed roots.  So I crushed all the clumps by hand (great hand exercise) and pulled out all the roots I could find.

I had some leftover sun-loving plants from seeds in small 6-cel flats.  They weren't in good condition, but they weren't dead either, so I planted them in the cleared spot.  Eight Butterfly Weeds (Asclepias, perennial), and if they survive, that will be fine because I planted them near other perennials (Torch Lily and Autumn Joy Sedum).  Next to those, I planted 6 surviving Basil.  Then I found that there were 10 Black Eye Susan Vine barely growing, so I stuck them in the ground too.  Well, why not.  Give them a chance, you know?

The Butterfly Weed look mostly dead, but even the worst had some small leaf buds and the roots were healthy.

All these Basil have to do is produce some leaves before they die at the first frost (late October, usually).

The Black-Eyed Susan vines will want something to climb, but there is time to see if they grow much.

 At least it isn't 6'x4' of grassy weeds.