I cleaned out and weeded the Corner Garden today and got ready to sow the Sunflowers and Zinnias. There were some of those big matted roots clumps of whatever that grass is. It is definitely nasty and tends to grow up between the roots of other plants. It had just about choked out the Yarrow here, so I had to dig up the whole thing and separate the remaining Yarrow roots from the grass root mass. There were just a few Yarrow pieces left. They were replanted and I think they will do just fine. Yarrow is generally tough and durable. The Turtlehead is fine, and of course the Black-Eyed Susans as well. The ‘Becky Towe" Phlox is still surviving, but has never gotten much bigger than its original size. The hardy Geranium I planted in the front corner did quite well and was in full bloom early, a few weeks ago. Along the side, the plants have all filled in nicely and there is little need for weeding there – front to back: Stella D’oro Lily, Veronica, Peony, Tiger Lily, Peony, Crocosmia, Caryopteris. Right now the Peonies are in bloom and it smells really nice.

In the left over empty spaces, I sowed Sunflower seeds along the fence; the rest of my Mammoths left from 2008, and some that I had from a trade called ‘Garden Statement.’ I also had some seeds from Poland that a friend had sent me, that look a lot like the dwarf ‘Teddy Bear’ Sunflowers, but I can’t read Polish so I don’t really know. Then I sowed a mix of Zinnia seeds – mostly mixed color Benary Giants with some red and white ‘Candy Cane’ and some mixed colors of Dahlia-flowered variety.

Along the front edge I have planted three more different kinds of primula/primrose that I had wintersowed. The Japanese Primrose were planted out last week. There were generally LOTS of tiny seedlings, so I planted them out in the HOS (hunk of seedling) method and the strongest will survive or I’ll have to do some thinning.