It was another perfect weekend weatherwise. And while I wanted to sew all weekend, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be out in the fresh air.

And as always, there’s always something to be done in the garden. Mostly because I just can’t stop collecting plants. It seems like every time we’ve gone out the last couple of weeks, I’ve picked up another plant or two for the garden.

And I really needed to get them in the ground.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been tracking the sun exposure where the old fence used to be. And it actutally gets quite a bit of sun… and it extends much further into the woodland garden now that the fence isn’t there.

So I decided to take all the new plants, and build some “walls”, giving the woodland garden more of a sense of enclosure. I got out my tools and started stripping turf. The area wasn’t too hard to clear, but I soon learned that digging for planting was going to be a little more challening than I first thought. I came across some large areas of concrete (probably footings from another, long-ago fence) too big for little ‘ol me to dig out. There was also the stump of a walnut Dave had cut down not long after we moved. It was a tree that obviously wasn’t planted on purpose and was way too close to the house.

But, I persevered, worked around the obstructions, and soon I had two new garden areas.

The area on the left was an extension of the border garden that runs the length of the fence. Then I mirroed it on the house said. I only had enough black mulch to cover the left garden, so the right side got plain, undyed mulch – which was free courtesy of the town council.

After the big storm, they asked every one who could to bring their broken trees and branches to an empty lot on the edge of town. They brought in some industrial wood chippers, and turned it all into a big pile of mulch, and we’re all welcome to take as much mulch as we want for free until the end of the month.

Next spring, I’ll get more black mulch because I prefer the look of it, but this will do for now.

And I know you’re dying to see all the new pretties I planted.

I’ve been thrilled to discover that my beloved Tickseed doesn’t just come in shade of yellow and red, but also pinks!!!

So I have FOUR new ones!

Despite my trouble with beetles and sawflies, I don’t have near enough roses…

So a trip to Rona saw this buttery beauty come home with me. Her name is Mellow Yellow, and long time readers will recognize her from the townhouse garden. She didn’t survive a revamp I did there, and I’ve missed her ever since.

I added several new sages. The first is a pretty pale blue. The last two are “Baby Sage: and while they are perennials, they will require some extra love to get them through the winter.

The big greenhouse on the way to Sarnia posted about Butterfly bushes on their Facebook page

And I couldn’t wait to run there and got get one! I picked out this lovely pale lavender. This is my fifth butterfly bush and it won’t be my last.

While there, Dave took a shine to this pretty thing.

It’s called Bluebeard and will become quite shrubby as it ages. Dave liked that it had several bumblebees on it in the nursery, so it was definitely a good candidate for our garden.

I also relocated a few of the Cherry Brandy Susans that were taking over the catio yard..

and planted several of the foxglove seedlings, since I still had so many!

Eventually, these two gardens will grow tall and full and help the woodland garden feel like a separate space. And I plan to get another arbour for the space between the two gardens.

But that can wait until next year. I’m done digging for this year!