The only thing better than a weekend in the garden is a long weekend in the garden. Especially if it’s spring (or in this case the unofficial start of summer) and the weather is sunny and mild and serendipitously showery. These last three days were the best for plant shopping and plant planting. The best for rearranging the furniture—and by that I mean transplanting (it’s not too late) and moving indoor plants out (it’s not too early although the nights are still on the cool side). All the stuff I love to do in the spring. Pretty sure my Z thinks I’m nuts because I’m always pasted at end of it even though I usually break for a nap in the middle of it.
And just like clockwork, I have fallen in love with my garden all over again. By anyone else’s standards it’s a mess. But it’s my mess. I think it’s beautiful and, also, I’m on it. 
One thing I’ve noticed is that some of my favorite thugs have grown out of scale. I don’t mind plants that act like weeds (I want the strawberries to fill the patio cracks) but looking weedy isn’t so OK. They and the violets in my garage/rain garden are burlier than the perennials and even the shrubs at this stage. So even though violets are butterfly hosts, I have evicted the extra-annoying clumps and placed a few container plants that, until the rest of the garden grows, might provide enough weighty bulk to make the remaining blobs of violet and strawberry leaves look more delicate and garden worthy. And I’ll enjoy working on a list of plants to add to that bed that will offer better contrast this early in the season.
I was a little bummed by today’s showers but the trunkful of plants I brought home from the nursery Saturday got extra watering in; a shiny new rain barrel (replacing a funky, stopped up and mosquito-infested fish barrel) was tested; and it gave me the chance to CLEAN the plantry. Plantry cleaning (to own the truth, any cleaning) is a chore that usually sits at the very bottom of the weekend to-do list but maybe it will rise higher from now on with the incentive of creating an inviting, rainy-day, garden-side haven in what is essentially a screened porchlet. (I’d be writing this out there right now if it wasn’t such a chilly evening.)
Did you spend a long weekend in the garden? Do you think your garden is a mess too? Are you in love?
kristin green | trench manicure 
Isn’t this the case with everyone’s garden? Garden tour gardens of weed free perfection are either sterile or impossible Edens; I think most of ours falls everywhere in between. I still have lots of bluegrass to weed out among other weeds. Sisyphus had his rock; I have bluegrass
Susan, You’re right. My perspective is skewed — even though we have plenty of weeds at Bwold too. And if I was ever hit by the bus, I think my garden would be more likely to drown in creeping Charlie, chickweed and crabgrass than butterbur or plume poppy. -kris
I retired and moved to Montana four years ago living in Zone 4, which means it snows a lot. This year I am starting my first ever garden and am now the proud owner of two small grow rooms. I’ve been germinating vegetables and flowers since February and have managed to lose a few when they were set out too soon. I was very impatient.
Your book, Plantiful, was just read with so many ideas that I just broke my budget ordering seeds for plants/flowers listed in your excellent book. Thank you so much for this marvelous book, my head is buzzing with so many new ideas that I can’t wait for the newly ordered seeds to arrive.
Wayne
Wayne, Thank you! You made my day! I hope you keep in touch and fill me in on your garden’s progress. So exciting… Happy spring/summer! -kris