back to the garden

I always need some incentive, some starter to pay attention to the back-yard. And because this year’s spring-planting was interrupted by the trip to Peru and the re-acclamation once back, I didn’t get to the rock-garden until last weekend. The incentive came in the form of an urn. (i’ve been wanting to buy an amphora, that a potter in Highland Park makes, but never got around to it) I saw the urn at the greenhouse when I was looking for an organic-insecticide, (i’m now trafficking in oxymorons) because I’m determined to grow zucchini plants and not lose them to mildew and borers. (i don’t want to use monsanto poisons to achieve this goal, hence the organic-pesticide)

Hahn’s Nursery in the North Hills is my go-to place for organic sprays for the roses, vegetables and fruit-trees; it’s also my favorite place for wall ornaments and other decorative garden pieces. (i tend to buy at the end of the season and I buy items that are slightly damaged and therefore reduced) While walking through their non-plants area, I saw this large urn – in the middle in the pic – but when I looked at the $180 price-tag, I moved on. However, I did notice that it was missing two of its four handles, so I asked about it. The sales-woman, that always given me great advice on fungus and insect treatments, said that it was reduced to $75. I bought it. (a third handle was inside the urn and i glued it back on with super-glue)

Integrating the 3-feet tall urn into the flower area, required a redesign of the rocks and the pots that fill up the north-east corner of the back-yard. And I’ve been working on situating everything for the last 5 days. Today, I made the final re-arrangements.

Items in the pic – left to right – bay leaf, yellow daisies and vermillionaire or firecracker plant, the urn and an ornamental sweet-potato vine.