Heart of gold.

The Shade Garden

Like Neil Young himself, I too was searching for a heart of gold. Well… I knew where to find one, it was the financier I was looking for. Found it!

I was rewarded for all of my hard work at the shop with a nice little budget to start re-planting the shade gardens on the NW side of our house. You might remember last year as I tried all kinds of things that ultimately failed (radishes, carrots, spinach) all from seed, all failures. Turned out all we needed was some reliable irrigation and that came in the form of my new gardener Hermino. He’s terrific. Like the little baby jesus delivered me an Angel of Horticulture… but more on Hermino later.

Today, Gadzuki & I went to Plant World to get some things that would be suitable for a partially shady area, wouldn’t mind the encroaching oleanders and could stair step down in 3 tiers. Oh yeah, and it would have to be considerate of the last thing my husband said to me before he left for work… “Don’t cover up the lights.”

Two toddler sized shoes in the turtle pond later, we had what we had come for. The same kid that helped us out to the car with our vegetables yesterday loaded us up and as I was fastening my kid in the carseat I heard him say “Have a great day, Beautiful”. WHAT? I’m almost positive I looked around for another person in the parking lot that he might have been talking to. Now normally I would just take this as a compliment, say if it came from the 60 year old man that had just run my debit card… but for some reason, out of the mouth of a twenty something kid, I’m inclined to roll my eyes and laugh. I know I should just be gracious and go on my merry way… but for what ever reason I can’t. Twenty year old boys are silly, and the idea that this one thought he could flirt with me is some how offensive… I mean, doesn’t he know who my husband is? Ha! (I JOKE!!) Really, they should be used to dealing with celebrities… Nick Cage was there yesterday when we arrived. (Still Joking!! Not about the Nick Cage thing, he was really there… I’m joking about my poor husbands celebrity status.)

Anyway…

Here’s what we got:

1. A Hearts of Gold Redbud tree. (I’ve been pining over this tree for over a year)
2. 2 Blushing Susie Black-Eyed Susan Vines (because they remind me of my mothers garden)
3. 6 Vinca Major (periwinkle)
4. 1 flat of “baby tears” (ground cover)

And here are some before and afters:

Before

After

As you can see… this section of the yard needs a lot of work still, but its nice to know one small chunk is done.