Discounts for flowers are easily obtained early, when most gardeners have not thawed out or even thought about new plants. Surprisingly, gardening interest and purchasing drops off early in the summer, prompting another round of discounts. End of the season discounts in tools are especially fun to exploit. Rose clippers will not rust or rot over the winter.
I never got Bee Balm going in Phoenix, because the desert is good for cacti and little else. I was a marvel with cacti - everything grew like crazy. A lady stopped by to harvest prickly pear fruit because I had hundreds of them along the outside cinderblock fence. The fruit are great for jam and tea, but murder on the skin, with little hair-like needles easy to attract, difficult to extract.
I tried to get red Bee Balm during peak buying and missed out. Another supplier had leftovers, so some are on the way. They seem especially attractive to hummingbirds, though the color attraction is hotly debated.
The Butterfly Garden already boasts two Joe Pye Weeds, large and tall. I have Yarrow growing there, plus Comfrey. A Chaste Tree is on the corner toward the main garden. But lo, the area around these flowers is weedy-grassy and extremely fertile. Below is how I will exploit this for Bee Balm.
The only way to block weeds in the sunniest spot in our yard is to block the sun thoroughly. I have been gathering big cardboard boxes for the first layer of sun blocking. Jessica Walliser pointed out the trick of laying down cardboard in the fall and cutting holes in it for plants in the spring. I will lay down cardboard and cut holes for the expected Bee Balm. I can keep the cardboard in place with water buckets, bags of leaves, and wood mulch. In the fall, the Bee Balm will be growing well, d.v., and I can piled up leaves around them. The weeds that exploit a heavily mulched area are tall and strong, so they are also easy to snip at the base, blessing them for opening up the soil and fertilizing it.
The Butterfly Garden is a long walk around the house, out the front door, down to the sidewalk, walk over and up the south side of the garden, voila - butterflies and bees. Some will shake their heads and say, "Why so much trouble for an almost hidden secret garden?"
My answer, "We may not see them most of the time, but they provide a home base for a number of beautiful creatures, all of them spilling into the adjoining Rose Garden for the feeders, plants, birdbaths (note the plural), and bird food.
Our porch is modest but perfect for after noon pour-over coffee. We are in the shade, usually sheltered from wind, and just a bit above the garden sloping down to the sidewalk. Yesterday Ranger Bob, Mrs. Ichabod, and I watched for bunnies, birds, and bees. Sassy stood watch over the treats when she was not scanning the cul-de-sac for enemies of the U. S. Constitution, foreign and domestic.
A grand porch would put us high above God's Creation, with a porch built of sturdy fencing to keep children safe. Yes, I fell off our little porch, because the base is a bit above the garden. I bent over the tiny fence to clean the bird bath, and the laws of gravity over-ruled my Franciscan ideals. Nothing was harmed, and Ranger Bob had a good laugh about it later.
