Plants... we have 'em here at Crow Cottage.

Sometimes I think we are shrinking and the plants around us are starting to swallow us up. Unchecked, they may just do that.

Just the other day I wanted Paul to move a plant over to the spot shown above and below...



There is a tiny bit of the fencing showing, looking over into the neighbor's yard, that I want to cover up with plants. But Paul insisted he had planted something in there with a delicate pretty white flower, but I didn't see anything but what looked like a giant weed growing there.

Until today, that is.

Now I can see it is blooming and I love it. For the life of me I can't think of its name, but I will, at some point. (I think Paul told me it's a "spirea"). He told me the name of it, and it's an old fashioned plant that was here when we bought the house, but we dug it up from in the middle of the front yard. Now a new one, or rather a transplanted one, has sprung up over by that fence, so I think now that the small area that is still bare along the fence will soon be covered over.

We also planted that hemlock pine next to the bush and when we planted it, it was only about 2 feet high, and that was about last year. Look how big it's gotten in just a year!



I'm starting to think that may need to be moved again -- but where? We've just about filled up the good available spots in our garden with plants now. It may be a large lot, but it's getting full.

Here's his nibs, the Kipster, doing guard duty - barking at some noise down the road, probably another dog off in the distance:



And for Topsy Turvy, here is a current picture showing my still-as-yet-unbloomed hydrangea plant out front - it's the lighter green one that is growing by leaps and bounds this past year:



I don't often get out to the street to see that plant up close, but I think I can see buds on it where the beautiful blue flowers will bloom. I will keep you posted on those.

The picture below shows the holly bushes (4 or 5) and, to their left, the barberry bushes (2):



Here is an old photo showing the same area of the yard but just after I'd planted the hollies. The red arrow points to them, I believe there were 5 of them.



Those hollies were all planted there by me many years ago, and they were just tiny things, about 5-10 inches high each. The red arrow below...



... is pointing to the tiny holly bushes after I had just planted them there. We used to have our vegetable garden out front, but we moved it around back. Now we don't have a vegetable garden at all.

We noted when we traveled to England, the holly plants there are huge, towering over things in the forests. They really thrive there in that wet climate in England. I wanted our hollies to grow like the ones we saw in Yorkshire, and these, although they are not nearly as tall, are certainly not disappointing me. They make a very nice living fence along the property line. And blending in with the hollies to the left are two barberry bushes, with prickers galore, that I had planted out by the front steps not long after we moved here. We moved them over there to make the living fence continue on down the property line. The birds love to flit in and out of all that foliage, which stays all year long and never gets bare. I like that part.

And last but certainly not least, another gem of the garden is my helper, Kip-the-dog:



I can always count on my Kip for good company when sitting outside on a fairly nice spring day like today. The skies are a white color now, though, which means we will be getting rain later on. That's OK with me. Rain makes the plants grow, and you can see how much that makes me a happy camper here.

Cheers for the growing things,

Bex & Co.

Vote for Red Sox All Star:
Daniel Nava

If anyone on the team deserves it, it's Daniel. He has been no less than amazing this year He would be under Outfielder.

V O T E * * H E R E

(Note: He's not listed so you need to write in his name at the bottom of the ballot)

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