A Cart Full of Favorites

Elizabeth at Garden Rant is having a contest to give away five Troy-bilt garden carts and I sure could use one. This is what I'd be using now if it didn't have a flat tire again. It was left as junk by the previous owner and John keeps repairing it for me. It won't be long before the plastic will have to be held together with duct tape.

So, the contest. I have five (5) to give away so your chances are good. I had a few ideas for possible comment tasks, including writing a classic sonnet and describing and solving the most important issue facing home gardeners today. But, in the end, I came up with this: list your five favorite plants (presumably that you could put in this cart) and briefly explain why they'd be the ones you'd rescue from your garden if it was threatened by catastrophe. Or just say why you like them. Troy-Bilt will send a cart each to the five best comments, as determined by me (representing Garden Rant).

I wouldn't have had a prayer of winning one if I'd had to write a sonnet but listing my five favorites plants can't be that hard, can it? Wait a minute - just five!?


#5 - Crocuses. They are the first plants I see here in the spring and give me hope that the snow won't last into June. They wouldn't take up much room in the cart - instead I'd use the cart to shovel off my flower beds into the cart and haul the nasty white stuff away. I could have blooms two weeks earlier like everyone in town!

#4 - Monarda / Beebalm / Oswego Tea. I love everything about this plant; the bright red color, the way it spreads without taking over, it's tall, lasts all summer and the mint scent is wonderful. It also blooms right around the 4th of July here and the flower heads look like miniature fireworks.

#3 - Daylilies. My goal is to have enough varieties to bloom all season long. The season is so short here that shouldn't be hard. I love the grace of the flowers and variety of colors. If I could save just one it would be this one that I have no name for. Why this one? Besides the great color combination, it was a gift from my sister.

#2- Peonies. We had very few flowers when I was growing up but we always had peonies. The flowers are huge and just scream "Happy Spring" to me. Even after the flowers are done they stay attractive for the entire summer and they are virtually care free. Mom's peony now resides in my garden and if I could rescue only one, that would be it. I do have several others however and some of them need to be moved so the cart would get a workout.


#1- Hosta. Even before I started gardening I had hostas. They grow in the shade but don't mind a bit of sun, weeds don't grow under them, they come in so many sizes that there is one for most any spot. I love the mounded shape and even though I'm not a big fan of the flowers they attract hummingbirds. They are quite hard to kill, although I have lost one called First Frost. A plant by that name probably had no business being in my garden anyway. I need to rearrange my front bed and the cart (and a small crane) would come in very handy for moving this hosta that is competing for space with the bleeding heart.

Oswego Tea

Two years ago I'd never heard of Monarda or beebalm. For my new garden Country Girl gave me a few Oswego Tea plants. A plant named for here, who would have thought!? She said it was red so I planted it near some crimson sage and next to the ox-eyed daisies that she gave me. It was a little battered from the move and didn't stand up straight but how could you not fall in love with such a crazy flower! I soon noticed lots of baby plants but with lots of space to fill I was thrilled.

It was just luck that the spot I picked was just outside my bedroom window. I love waking up to the minty scent and sea of bright red. This is the patch after I potted some up for the two fundraisers back in June.

I can sit in the chair by the window and watch the humming birds and they don't seem to notice that I'm there. I love to watch them move in a circle around each flower. I'll be moving some to the back of the house under the office window. :))

About the same time that I was given the Oswego Tea a parent gave me a lupine from her garden. I had already started some lupine seeds so I stuck it next to them and staked it up.

I didn't notice the stow-away until I had cut the lupine back. You can see it there on the right. If I hadn't just gotten some from Country Girl I would have probably pulled it out thinking it was a weed! It never did bloom last year so I have been anxiously awaiting the blooms this year.

Pink! I love it. Country Girl was hoping for purple. Oh, well.

You can see how much this patch spread too. I'll be moving some to my new garden as I don't have as much room for it to spread here but I'll be happy to let it move around the corner a little.

From the Mountain Valley Growers Tea Herb Garden:

Native to the eastern United States, Oswego Tea was a welcome addition to the tea chest for tea drinkers during the Boston Tea Party. Its deep, rich flavor gave the robust body to herbal tea that was needed to mimic what people were used to drinking, China Tea. Oswego Tea is also known as Bee Balm.

A riot of color in spring, it should be pruned back to about an inch above the ground right after flowering. This will ensure a vigorous fragrant crop of leaves for harvesting and drying before winter frosts knock the plant back to the ground for its long dormant rest. Oswego Tea leaves are most flavorful when dried and the flowers are best when used fresh, but can be dried. Oswego Tea can be added to Black tea for an Earl Grey flavor, or blend it with any citrus-flavored herb for a morning eye-opener.

A Bit Behind

I seem to live in a time warp area where we are two weeks behind the surrounding areas. In town the azaleas are blooming (mine are just budding out) and the hosta have been coming up for a while now (I hunted and finally found some tips just poking through). I still don't have much blooming but things are starting to come along.

Lupine and Monarda. The lupine was given to me by a student last year. The monarda was a stow-away that never bloomed last year so I have no idea what color it will be. It certainly has multiplied. :-)

Spurge. This was given to Country Girl last year and she shared with me so I really didn't know what to expect.

Ox-eyed daisy, red monarda (both gifts from Country Girl last year) and delphinium.

We had a frost overnight so I've just started hardening off my seedlings in hopes of being able to plant later in the week sometime. So in the planting department it looks like we'll be a week or two early this year.