Or Tales From The Unbalanced Gardener

I arrived to find all kind colored mums and a few pink anemones strewn about the front entry at the bottom of the drive. She's been shopping. I had other things to do first. I can ponder where to stick the mums for a bit.

The Lady of the House came barreling down the drive just as I began to set them out for planting. STOP!!! I don't want them here at the house entry. I want them at the top of the drive.

There is no where to plant them at the top of the drive.

Let me show you. Just go up there. I will show you where I want to plant them.

There is no room to plant them at the top of the drive.

Why yes there is room. The Lady of the House wants two new beds opposite sides of the drive for her new perennial mums that are currently grass and foot wide strips of well done road base beside the asphalt. Now.

Fine, but I am doing it my way. Gardy don't dig no grass to make no stinkin' flowerbeds.

You've met them before, Mo and Momo. They now have perennial mum beds with assorted additions for the fall. "I love this time of year," she says.

I prefer blocks and drifts of color. The Lady of the House wanted glitter mums.

I drowned the grass in glyphosate, swirled in a couple bags of compost, planted the hardy mums and other bits and covered the new beds with a thick layer of mulch. Done. Time and the life it holds will make the soil.

And while I was there, one big fat out of balance Cryptomeria in the tiny left side bed was cut flush to the ground and a new Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gracilis' was planted to replace it. Sprigs of fresh dug Box, Sarcococca, were planted to fill the bare spot. There is new and fresh imbalance. Much better.