Gardening

Yesterday was an unusual day.

So, I did what any sensible person would do in a similar situation: I treated myself to a blackberry green tea frappuccino on the advice of a good friend, and then I went to the Despot to buy more plants for my garden.

I went there to buy a few baby Russian sage plants for the front yard. They grow like weeds in the backyard, and once established, they need very little water. After discussing it with my gardening consultant, we agreed that this plant was a good substitute for grass. We live in a desert for all intents and purposes so by choosing wisely we can avoid wasting water on grass that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Really, Russian sage shouldn't be there either, but I'm not going to single-handedly start a revolution in native-only plant xeriscaping by planting only truly conscientious plants in my tiny space. I just want something that grows fast, uses little water, draws in bees, and looks pretty. I love the sage that grows in the back and hope that the four babies I brought home yesterday will thrive in the front as well.

Although I went in to buy a few sage plants, I came out with an unplanned item: a beautiful, pale lavendar with black spots foxglove, a large square cream colored plastic container for it, and a dark navy blue ceramic pot for my indoor grasses to live in together. I have admired the foxglove in gardens in my neighborhood while walking The Twins and finally pulled the trigger yesterday. The grass plants I have occupy multiple tiny pots and send out shoots every so often. This way, they will be together in one location to make watering easier. Plus, I will have smaller pots for the seeds I plan to germinate.

All in all, I have a nice little seed library that grows by the week:
snapdragons
blue bells
lavendar
jasmine
dollar plantweed*
carnation grass*
gladiolus
onion flower*

* These names reflect what I would have named the parent plants. In reality, I know they go by another name. I have yet to figure those out.

I also resisted buying another jasmine plant in full intoxicating bloom that was for sale at Super One. I have a feeling that plant may come home at some point...

The photos to the right and below are the haul from my seed gathering for the dollar plantweed.

The things that look like potato chips are paper thin but surprisingly strong. It is possible to write little notes on them with mechanical pencil if you are very careful. Between each 'potato chip' is a transparent chip that looks like mother of pearl. On either side of it, between it and the potato chip, lie the brown seeds. Each pod contains on average 6 brown seeds plus occassional smaller tan things that look like immature seed.