Planting Day.

5-6-13 SHORT HILLS: We have had more cookie-cutter days, but there may be some rain mid-week. I went to the garden center yesterday and got some bone meal fertilizer and a bunch of perennials for the beds here. With Maizie running all over, digging everywhere and chewing on everything, new plantings are probably going to be an exercise in futility.

Bone meal fertilizer is made of, should I say this, ground up slaughterhouse bones. Grisly. But it’s high in phosphorus which means, according to the bag, it promotes plant rooting and flowering. I spread it on all the bulbs now finishing up and several plants that should, but don’t bloom. We’ll see. This fertilizer is also high in calcium and has a bit of nitrogen. The content of the fertilizer should be lots of calcium and phosphorus because that is what bones are made of.

Today I trimmed some of the overgrown ivy and pachysandra that was encroaching on the patios and paths, and hauled two tarp loads to compost. I also cleaned a bunch of debris off the pool cover and did some of the new planting—all after my PT.

I planted three cranesbill, Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’, two columbine, Aquilegia ‘Biedermeier’, two Delphinium, ‘Pacific Giant Astolat’ and ‘Blue Bird’, two bee balm, Monarda ‘Marshall’s Delight’, two lilyturf, Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’, and one Sedum x ‘Autumn Fire’.


Azalea, those markings on the center petal must be a guide for pollinators.

Azalea in red.