Trial and Error

I truly meant to get this post out yesterday or even the day before that, but sadly as you know if you have been reading along, my health is not what it should be.... sadly it is keeping me from so many more things such as my garden. That aside this is about just that, my garden here at Muse Cottage. To see where it all started, be sure to click on the label "Gardening" , and catch up. Here is a little peek...

The early days of the first bed,
 when all the plants were baby plants,
freshly put in and not yet showing
their growth patterns. 

I recently read an piece in a local paper by a master gardener that called herself the incidental gardener. She stated that her plants had to be strong to survive in her garden as well as the fact that she has made a lot of mistakes, that made me feel much better. I recognized myself in the words she used to describe herself and her garden.  It had been years since I had a garden of my own, and being in a new area , well I think I jumped into it all without arming myself with the proper knowledge of sun patterns, the soil type, and never mind the glee filled shopping frenzy filled with a truck load of plants and no real plan as to how to put them in...meaning where to put them. The tags helped some, but not enough. In gardening , mistakes are made, some plants work, some don't and sometimes you get lucky, and well .... you get the idea... as the master gardener said " my plants need to be strong to survive" . So with all that said it brings me to the rest of this post. I wanted to be the open book that I have always been about my life, my health, my ups and my downs and so keeping with that trend I am sharing the latest happenings with the garden at Muse Cottage.... and those plants that have been strong and those that have not. 

Where there was once a Quince bush,
original to the yard when we bought the
cottage, now is just destruction.

...and a BIG hole....

Even with it gone, with how much the bed has
grown, you can hardly tell. No worries tho,
I filled the hole with a new climbing rose,
America.

Many strong plants, such as the yarrow, the butterfly bush,
and even bird seed sunflowers are doing quite well!

Speaking of those Sunflowers....

YES! That is the roof line. 

Other strong fighters....

The Cecile Bruner  is doing quite well,
cannot even imagine what next season will
bring for it's growth.

 Hope over the walk to the Fairy Garden Bed...

This was a baby bare root when I
bought it.. and truly can not even recall
the name as I misplaced the tag! 

Again, some of the plants here are doing well, and a few others not as much, this was a good day.

I found this little guy and he needed a job so he is now the
fairies' gardener ... the furniture and bridge is for him, the
fairies prefer sitting among the flowers and flitting about.

Again, misplaced the tag , but this one smells divinely sweet.
Like a true rose when you think of the scent. 

Delphinium.. or so the tag near the pot said, yet the
foliage is all wrong... don't you hate unmarked pots??? 

Towards the front .... a Few More Fighters...

There is more that I can share with you... but need to save some for next time don't I? Perhaps as more things change. I have a few of the less strong, wrongly placed and simply just wrong plants that I need to deal with, and with changes bring new plants in their places as well.... I did spot some pretty dark lavender at the local Home Depot today, and if I can make it happen a few of them will come home and replace a few under achievers and hopefully be the strong fighters in my very own "incidental garden" . It is of course all trial and error.  

Bonus....

( Taken on a lovely day in the garden when I spotted the first Monarch of the season)

Come Monday( I hope) .... A Contest! 

Hint... be thinking of what makes you feel beautiful and 

find your inner Ooh La La !  And you could find yourself

with the stories of how French women do the same.