Anticipation

All of the flower seeds have arrived, and yesterday I planted delphiniums (cross your fingers), pansies, phlox, dahlias, coleus, snapdragons, geraniums (1 is already germinating!), violas, and dianthus. And a multi-herb dish garden. And there's another stack of flowers I plan to direct sow in Spring.

Mike's jalapenos and bell peppers have all sprouted, but we're still awaiting his fancy hot peppers...

As far as planning is concerned, we're going to construct a planter made of gray landscaping stone in front of the house. Here I plan to test just how much shade a flowering plant can tolerate. And there are sooo many awesome shade plants, so I'm going to narrow it down to only cool colors and interesting foliage. Here is my rough sketch:

This includes Siberian bugloss, monkshood, coral bells, and astilbe. I'll probably use Solomon's seal, hosta(s), and ferns I already have. In front of the windows would be violets, forget-me-nots, and lily of the valley. Of course, if nothing tolerates the shade, I'll have to go with a pure-hosta garden, or maybe a single boring groundcover (aaaah!).

Mike has generously offered to dig up Spring wildflowers from the woods to landscape our house. Besides the legal issues, I don't think these would have enough presence to produce eye-catching curb appeal. Not that there aren't really cool wild plants out there. These are some Mike found last year:

(Yeah, this is a pigment-less flower in the Iowa forest. Totally looks like it's from Brazil.)

(The fungi are all edible, but not all yummy. Check out the blue shroom!)

Breck's, who gave us those bulbs last fall, has a decent selection of shade plants, and conveniently is giving $25 off orders of $50 or more. And now, I'd better check out the budget and measure the space between those two windows. I have plants to buy!