What I was calling the entryway garden may now have to have another name, side garden? little garden? gingko garden?

I had only to mention that I thought it might need to be blocked off somehow to keep Cassius and Raj out and before I knew what was happening Scottie had a beautiful shorter version of the central garden’s fence up. I feel sorry for every man, woman, child and bull dog out there who doesn’t have a Scottie.

He moved the tree over a few inches when I mentioned I thought it wasn’t centered correctly without blinking an eye but with plenty of sweat and brawn then dug out the roses (fairy, yolande and iceberg) from the back and dug holes in that cement like dirt where we planted them. Voila! a garden is born. The gingko tree is now ringed with succulents ( dragons blood, hens and chicks and crassula something or other) and around the outside edges there is salvia, 2 different kinds of lavender, lambs ear, erigeron, iceberg, yolande and the old pink rose that is probably the only surviving plant from when we first moved into the house. I’ve always loved that little rose. The flowers are deeply pink, fragrant and compact. I must search for a name.

So now the plum tree is lonely. Its fruit mostly picked off by the birds and now no roses beneath its skinny canopy. We moved the fairy rose and the penstemon to the driveway where all orphans go. I think I’ll scavenge some nasturtium seeds from the back and plant them in the driveway as well. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner! They love that exposure and reseed with abandon. Perfect for that driveway.

I bit the bullet and planted the bachelor buttons I had in pots into the ground in the central garden. I have beer bottles to plant as well to keep those rascals away. I also found a six pack of echinacea at the Ace in Morro Bay which I have never grown and put those in there as well. Fingers crossed.

To finish it all off, I planted an erigeron in each corner of that central garden hoping to see a mound of those little daisies spilling over the rocks in a few months.

I also trimmed up the lavender in there and brought a bunch into the bedroom so that when we walked into our room last night the whole room was redolent. I can’t believe I’ve been mostly throwing those away all these years!

now I’m itching for a potting bench and I think I’ll fashion one (mention to Scottie) out of scraps and put it in the back corner where the pond will eventually go.

While searching for potting soil I found an old bag of manure, half full and started to put it in the new garden when we realized it was crawling with worms! I’m going to make a vermicomposter with one of our empty rubbermaid bins.

The monk will be so proud.